The Key
by magicmumu
Summary: As Gabby meets Dinah, she slowly realizes that the new girl is much more than a mystery. Femslash! Updated 9/18/2011 after a long hiatus!
1. Chapter 1: Static

Title: The Key

by Erin Griffin

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Rating: PG

Pairing: Gabby/Dinah (eventually)

Summary: As Gabby meets Dinah, she slowly realizes that the new girl is much more than a mystery.

Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters. Maybe later on, I'll introduce someone new, and I own them, but the cool people, I don't.

Author's Note: This is the first really long story I have written since The Slayer of New Gotham, and I am hoping that the muses will be nice to me long enough to let me finish it. I know where this is going so far, so I have a good 4 chapters in me. Enjoy, even though it isn't beta'd.

**Chapter One**

**Static**

My life was never something one could call abnormal. Other than the fact that I fell in love with another girl when I was eleven, everything in my life was- dare I say it- perfect. I had parents that loved me and loved each other. My grades were good. I had friends who were there for me when I never expected them to be. Yeah, things were good. But the winds of change brought a peculiar breeze that burned my body and my soul not that long ago. While the rest of New Gotham High laughed and called her Zipper Girl, I considered her a mystery. Her name, in fact, was Dinah Redmond. She looked and acted that first day as if she walked off of the set of Full House with her blonde hair, bright blue eyes and chipper explanation on where the word 'zipper' was coined, but there was a sadness in her eyes that showed up if anyone ever took the time to look, and I mean truly see her. I did.

I felt bad for her when Kelly had started calling her Zipper Girl, not exactly the best name I've heard, really, but it was just enough to start the rest of the school in calling her that. I wanted to move away from Kelly's table to go talk to her, but she was gone before I came up with a good enough excuse to sit by her, and she'd left her full try on the table. Two and a half periods later, Ms. Gordon's fifth period literature class was interrupted by the door opening, and Dinah being unceremoniously pushed into the room. I didn't see who it was, just the hand as it disconnected with the back of her shirt. "Skip school again and I will surely kick your ass," the owner of the hand said distantly, as if she was already walking down the hall.

As the door closed, Ms. Gordon said, "Thanks, Helena!" Dinah sat down in the empty seat next to mine and didn't say a word for the rest of the day. I went home that night wondering what Dinah was thinking about.

The next time I saw her, she had her head on her knuckles as she looked straight ahead of her, obviously lost in thought. She didn't look my way as I walked towards the empty seat next to her. It wasn't until I'd sat down and started to put my books in order around me that she saw me. She had a look on her face that suggested that I had grown a few heads, but said nothing, instead scooting over an inch or two. I reached out to shake Dinah's hand and to introduce myself properly, but my movement made her jump and move further away from me. When my hand went to the table top, Dinah relaxed. "Sorry," she said, not meeting my eye, "It's nothing against you- I don't even know you. It's just..." she trailed off, but she didn't have to finish her sentence. "I don't like to be touched." I'll never forget the fear I saw in her eyes when she finally looked at me, as if she was somewhat afraid of me. Her comment, uttered in a low voice, got my attention. I was really curious now about where she'd been. The only other person I'd met before then who didn't like to be touched was a rape victim only months before. I nodded.

"I understand completely, and I'm sorry for invading your space like that." Dinah seemed taken aback by my apology, and I gave her a smile to reassure her (hopefully) that my intentions for sitting by her were good.

"S'okay." Dinah said. I tried again.

"My name's Gabby."

"Dinah." Of course, I already knew this, but I didn't say so. Other than the fact that she looked like she could use a friend, I don't know why I spent so much energy in getting her to talk to me. I guess I needed a challenge, and boy was she a challenge if I ever did see one. It was hard to get her to even tell me any of her hobbies, as if she never thought to have any. Eventually, I got her on the subject of movies we'd seen, and I couldn't get her to shut up. Which was a good thing. A couple of weeks of idle chit chat got me almost nowhere when I asked her if she wanted to hang out over the weekend, and she shyly said she'd ask Barbara, who was her guardian.

It was then that I asked her about her family, and she told me about how she met Ms. Gordon and how she'd come to live with her. She'd run away from her foster parents after an argument, and to New Gotham, where she had family. She met Ms. Gordon, who took her in when Dinah couldn't find her family. Sweet story, but unlikely. I knew even then that there were holes in her tale, but that was the first time she ever really opened up to me, so I saved my questions about her biological parents for another time. As time went by, I noticed that Dinah changed a lot. She got more outgoing. She had gotten some matching jewelry with what looked like birds (or bats depending on the lighting) that she'd touch as she fidgeted... and I've noticed that she fidgeted a lot. She also seemed even more of a mystery as time went on.

I remember the day I really wondered about her past. I was watching TV one Sunday when there was a knock at my door. It was Dinah, and she'd surprised me. Not just because her visit wasn't expected, but she looked as if she had just come from an aerobics class. She wore a light blue jacket over a white tank top and black stretch pants, and there was even some sweat still drying on her temple. She had been crying, and before I could ask her why, she'd launched herself into my arms and I almost fell over. She started to cry in earnest, and all she said in that time was 'She-" Dinah couldn't seem to finish her sentence. At one point, I thought I heard her say 'my mother...' but when I asked her to repeat herself, she looked at me as if I was crazy and told me that she said nothing.

I lied and said, "Must have been the TV I heard." In my mind, I knew that unless Spongebob Squarepants had Dinah's voice, it had to have been my mysterious friend who had spoken. She stayed a few hours, and I played along when her sudden arrival and crying episode went unspoken. We watched TV and a movie, and in the corner of my eye, I kept a close watch on her. Though she seemed to be better, it felt to me as if the air in the room had changed. It felt as if there was a tension or a static charge all around us. It seemed, also, as if I could pick up what was wrong even if she hadn't said a word. In my mind, it felt like the word 'abandoned' was coming from her, and was repeated softly in my head. Did her mother leave her somewhere when she was younger? Did Dinah remember it? It would make sense. But why would that make her break down and cry now? Did she find her mother? Did her mother find her? These questions ran madly through my mind, along with the word 'abandoned'. I felt strange that whole time. My head seemed to pulsate, and I could feel it. It didn't hurt; it just seemed as if I had a second heartbeat in my left temple. The static in the room had after a while started to hum, and indecipherable whispers surrounded the word 'abandoned'. What is going on?

_[I walk through a distorted version of an alleyway. It is dark. I look down at a small piece of paper in my hand. There is an address. It is my first day here, and I just witnessed a man's murder. No one would have believed me if I told the truth, so I lied to that cop. He seemed nice, too. The night is getting colder, darker than I ever thought it could. It's creepy, but I've seen worse in people's heads. An odd thought: This doesn't look like a place to hold a party. Am I lost? No, this is as the paper says. Where's Jerry? If I had somewhere to go, I would leave. I hear noise behind me, and I turn to see who's there. No one. I am just being stupid. I turn back in front of me, and see Jerry there. I am relieved. "Oh god, you scared me. I thought you were-"_

_"Dangerous?" At his look, relief turns to fear. I try not to show it._

_"Kind of a weird place to have a party," I say nervously._

_"One thing you have to learn about New Gotham, Dinah: things aren't always as they seem." This is my queue to run, though something tells me that it is exactly what he wants, a chase. It is my only hope, though, and I make a break for it. He grabs me and pushes me against the wall. That hurt. "Aw, don't be scared Dinah!"_

_"The lady isn't interested." I know who it is before we turn to glance at her. I've seen her in my dreams. I can only watch as a fight between them begins, and this woman saves me. I honestly never thought I'd find her. I didn't know what happened to her after that night. "You can just say thank you," I snap out of my thoughts when I realize she's speaking to me now. "It wasn't that spectacular." We both know that it was. Finally, I find words I wanted to say since I was nine._

_"No, it's... it's you. I saw you in my dream. I-" She only gives me a weird look. I wasn't expecting that reaction. To be honest, I didn't know what I expected tohappen when I actually found any of the people I saw in my dreams that fateful night when I was nine. I feel my lips moving, but I can't hear what I say next. The alleyway disappears, and in its place is a sight I've seen many times in my childhood and on into my early teens. I am in a house I've never seen before in my waking life, but feel as if I have lived there forever, and I am standing in the hallway. There are for white doors along the hallway, and all doors are open except for one. I walk down the hallway, as I always had. That door is always closed, and I never paid it any mind. But something is different this time as I walk by it. There was someone in there. I hear whispers. I cannot make out what they are saying, but they are talking. It sounds urgent, but what are they saying, and why do I feel that it is about me? I reach out t open the door, but I am afraid. What if they don't want me to hear it? Are they keeping this secret on purpose? Will I ever find out? Do they plan to tell me? Who are THEY anyway? I stand there, almost frozen in fear. I realize that I only hear one voice, but they are saying many different things all at the same time. Who is it]_

"Gabby?" I opened my eyes and saw my mother standing over me. I looked around. It was dark, both of my parents were home, and Dinah was gone. The TV was on an episode of Lassie, and it was at a lower volume than I remember the TV being on before. I had obviously fallen asleep. "We brought home dinner, but you were conked out and we didn't want to wake you up. It's in the oven if you want it." I smiled and stretched.

"Thanks, but I'm going to go sleep in my bed." I gave her a hug before turning off the TV and going to my room. I didn't care about changing. I was already in my 'lounge around the house' clothing. I lay on my back on my queen sized bed and looked up at the rainbow flag tac'd up on my ceiling. That was a very weird dream. It felt so real, the way I- Well, it wasn't even me. I truly felt like I was Dinah, like I knew the woman who saved me. I've never had a dream where I was someone else, at least, never in their perspective. That dream about the hallway, however, I've had before. Many times in fact, but this time it was different. When I usually have that hallway dream, I don't even notice the door that is closed. I would walk right by it as I'm on my way to somewhere else. The fact that there were whispers behind the door surprised me. The fear of opening the door surprised me even more. 'Something's not right,' I thought. I guess I should have gotten that creepy feeling of foreshadowing as I thought that, but I only covered myself up and went back to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2: Questions

**Chapter Two**

**Questions**

I didn't see Dinah the next day at school, and that worried me a little.

'Perhaps she's still upset about her mother or whatever it was that had upset her,' I thought as I walked from my last class to the parking lot.

There, I spotted Ms. Gordon and trotted over to her. "Gabby! Hi," she said, surprised to see me. I'm pretty sure she was expecting me to question her decision to give me a C on the last paper I handed in, but I was watching TV all weekend, so I knew I deserved the grade I got.

"Hi, Ms. Gordon. Do you know what's up with Dinah? She seemed so unhappy yesterday, and today, she's not in school.' My teacher watched me for a second, noting my concern, and in my head I felt a deep sadness that I somehow knew Dinah was feeling. I don't now how, exactly, but in my gut I knew Dinah needed someone to lean on. My teacher sighed.

"Dinah got some bad news, and she'll be gone from school a few days." I nodded, feeling sad that I couldn't be there for my new friend. 'What bad news did she get? Why would she be gone so long because of it? I hope her mother's okay. I hope her mother didn't die or something- That is the only thing that would keep me from school for so long.' I thought. I looked down at Ms. Gordon, wishing I knew what more to say.

"Tell Dinah she can come over any time, and that she's not alone. Tell her I'm here for her." Ms. Gordon smiled sadly, but she nodded.

"I'll pass on the message, Gabby. Thank you."

"Thank you, too." That earned me an odd look, and I waved before turning to walk home. At the crosswalk nearest the school, I saw Kelly. To be honest, ever since I befriended Dinah, I sort of left Kelly behind. She'd decided she didn't like Dinah. 'She's too weird' Kelly had said, and never made any effort to talk to her. I walked slowly up to the crosswalk next to her. She looked up at me, and then turned her body to fully face me.

"Where's your girlfriend?" She asked, her voice not unkind, when she saw there was no one near enough to hear her. Of all of my friends, Kelly was the only one who knew about my sexuality, and she was really good about keeping that a secret at school. Though I am not ashamed of being a lesbian, I don't feel that it's all of New Gotham High's business what my sex life, or lack there of, was like. I was relieved that Kelly was still keeping that a secret.

"She's at home, I guess, and she's not my girlfriend." I said, crossing the street when the white pedestrian symbol showed. Kelly looked at me after she reached the other side of the street. She seemed a little nervous. Like the day before with Dinah, I felt it, as if she didn't need to say it, I just felt she was nervous. 'This is so weird' I thought to myself when I recognized this feeling, 'I was never this receptive to this sort of thing.'

We were silent for most of the first block, and I too, got a little nervous.

"Listen, I'm sorry about my behavior lately, Gabster," she said, using a nickname I haven't heard since we played tetherball on the playground in the sixth grade. This made me look up at her with curiosity. "I know I've been a bitch since the day she got here, and I feel bad- I really do- but there is something about her... She scares me, Gabby. She's got this look about her, an aura that says she's dangerous." Kelly looked at me and nodded her head as if to reinforce her words. "And I know that you're determined to be friends with her. I'm not sure if it's because you like her or what, but I'm afraid to go near her."

"Dinah's not dangerous, and I don't want to stop being her friend because you're scared of her. I don't want to stop being your friend either. You're the first person to befriend me when my family first moved here."

"And I don't want to stop being your friend, either. We survived middle school and the first year of high school together... But I can't be your friend when you're with Zipper Girl. I don't want to be a dumb broad who makes you chose between me and her. We're neighbors. When we're both free, open the gate and let yourself in." By this time, we'd gotten to my house about 3 blocks away and were standing in front of the driveway.

"Her name is Dinah, and there's no reason to be afraid of her." I said, trying in vain to change Kelly's mind about my new friend. Kelly only shrugged, and I frowned in thought, not liking what she is truly saying to me. "Then we're no longer friends in school?" I asked, knowing that this would be the only time I would get to really see Dinah because I don't know her phone number or Ms. Gordon's address. Again, there was a shrug from Kelly, which was starting to frustrate me. "Okay then... I guess I'll call you." I felt a little bit angry with her for not wanting to give Dinah a chance. I mean, for Pete's sake, she wouldn't even say her name! Kelly only nodded once more and walked to the next house over and let herself inside. I knew that she'd set her backpack down, leave the house again, and walk down the street the other way to pick up her twin younger bothers from the elementary school. I used to go with her, and had even thought of going today, but something stopped me from offering.

Kelly was nervous around me the whole walk home, almost as if she feared that I would tell Dinah what she'd said. I wouldn't of course, but it made me sad that she almost feared me as well. Has the whole world gone insane?

Is there a full moon that I don't know about? And what is up with the humming? I knew the answer to that last question and didn't like it. The truth was, the humming had been there, low and constant since the night before. I could almost tune it out, but when I was alone with myself like I was then, walking slowly up my driveway while digging out my keys, it never seemed to stop. It drove me crazy... er. Who knows, maybe it isn't the rest of the world that's gone wacky. Maybe it's just me. If that's the case, then something is terribly wrong. I'm too young to be locked away in Arkham, claiming to hear my new friend's voice. And the dreams... Those dreams. Did that actually happen to Dinah? That can't be. The woman who saved me had feral eyes like a cat, and she moved so quickly and gracefully... At the same time, it wouldn't be the first time someone's claimed to have been saved by a mysterious rescuer cloaked in darkness. They were all over the news, people with extraordinary powers, some used for good, others... But I- Well, Dinah- claimed to have seen this person in HER dream. It felt as if this figure, this woman was why I- I mean Dinah- was in New Gotham.

It doesn't quite make sense. If this actually happened, then why am I dreaming about it? If it didn't... then why did it feel so real? What did I really know of Dinah? That she preferred Pretty In Pink to The Breakfast Club? That she bawls like a baby whenever she sees A Walk To Remember? What does that tell me? For all I know, Kelly could be right, and Dinah could be dangerous.

If not Dinah herself, then her past. Why else would she run away to a creepy old city like New Gotham and feel at home? 'That doesn't seem right, either,' I thought, 'Dinah is just a shy girl from Zippertown USA looking for acceptance. I better than anyone know what that was like, having uprooted and moved from San Diego when I was eleven.'

I shook my head and walked inside my house. I checked the messages just in case my mom or dad called with instructions for the night. No one but a telemarketer called. Something about life insurance. I then took out my lab homework, shaking my head at Matt Kendal's semi-readable handwriting. We were supposed to do a worksheet on the lab we'd done, and while I was doing the physical work of the lab, Matt was supposed to be taking notes and filling out the worksheet, only, it didn't quite happen that way. He didn't write out any specifics of the lab, so I told him I would write out the answers at home and have him do the lab experiment later in the week while I took the notes. I didn't want to fall behind in science or I will never catch up, and having a lab partner like Matt wasn't helping any.

I guess couldn't complain too much about it, really. It gave me something to do so that my mind wouldn't go insane with questions and thoughts. From the kitchen table where I had my homework sprawled out, I saw Kelly through the window. She no longer had her backpack on, and she seemed lost in thought. I had more questions about her behavior in the back of my mind, but I really needed to do my homework before my mind got too distracted, so I looked back down at my lab homework and began to work.

No strange dream that night or any other that week. The humming seemed to lessen, or I've been able to tune it out better, I'm not sure which.

Everyday after school I'd take a detour to Ms. Gordon's class to deliver Dinah's lab homework, since it was the only class we shared besides Ms. Gordon's. Part of me hoped that my teacher would tell me more about whatever it was that got Dinah so upset it that got her out of school for so long, but Ms. Gordon let nothing slip, and I was getting even more worried. With Kelly refusing to hang out with me within New Gotham High School's walls, the week was a long and lonely one, filled with questions that needed to be answered.

Finally, on Friday afternoon, I walked up to Ms. Gordon's classroom as I'd done the rest of the week. This time, unlike the rest of the week, I had come empty-handed. Before I could say anything, I heard "Miss Andrews, why am I not surprised?"

I turned to see Ms. Gordon in the back of the room, reaching up to mess with one of the posters that had fallen. I walked over and held up the top right corner. Without a word, she handed me the yellow tac, and I went to work putting the poster back in place. "Look-" I started to say, but my teacher cut me off.

"Gabby, I want you to know that I appreciate your concern for Dinah. The last few days have been very rough on her. What happened is a long and complicated story, but she is very strong, and I'm sure she'll bounce back from this."

"Ms. Gordon, at this point, I don't care about the details of what happened. Sure, I'm curious, but more than that, I just want to know if she's okay, and I want to hear it from her." To my surprise, she laughed. It was a small chuckle that ended as soon as it had started, but still it was enough to make me wonder what I'd said that was so funny. My teacher then looked at me. She studied me for a moment, and then said, "What happened to Dinah... I have a feeling things will get worse before it gets better, and she's going to need someone to be there for her. You're a nice, strong willed girl, and Dinah needs that in a friend." From the look on her face, there was a message, a moral, a hint of some sort in her words -I just knew it, but what exactly she was saying beyond 'Stand by her, Gabby, she needs you', I couldn't tell you exactly what it was.

I nodded my head and unstrapped my backpack long enough to grab at a notebook I used to write notes to Kelly during class (tell no one). The fact that it was now useless to me was not lost on me. I searched for my favorite blue pen and wrote down my cell phone number. "You know, in case she wants to tell me this 'long and complicated story'... Or anything," I said. "I'd call her, but..." I trailed off, but in my head, I finished, 'I don't know anything about her, let alone her phone number.' Ms. Gordon smiled and I put my backpack on again. Awkwardly, I left her classroom with nothing more to say.


	3. Chapter 3: Calling

**Chapter Three**

**Calling**

Nothing to do. I was bored senseless, and it didn't help at all that Dinah had been on my mind all night. I lay on my bed listening to Tegan and Sara, letting my mind go crazy with worry. Millions of 'what ifs' were going from bad to worse in point five seconds. Just when the worst thought entered my mind ('What if she got so depressed she commits suicide?') came to me unexpectedly, I walked quickly to the window of my room and looked outside.

I looked up at the star that could be seen from my window (or maybe that was a satellite...) and closed my eyes tightly. I imagined Dinah sitting on a couch, and thought of myself thinking to her, 'Please Dinah... call me.' I felt my head slightly pound, and I opened my eyes as the humming stopped for a second, and in my mind, an echo of my thoughts sounded. Right away, the humming returned, and I was able to tune it out quickly. I felt odd, weak almost. I leaned against the window for a calculated three or four minutes and then slowly went back to my bed. Before I could sit down, however, I heard the familiar chorus line to Seal's 'Crazy', which I thought was perfect timing considering the direction my thoughts had gone at that moment. I picked my cell phone off of my desk, where it was charging, and pressed the talk button. "Hello?"

I said tentatively, since it was well after midnight, and the phone number display said 'Private Number'.

"Uh- Gabby?" I knew immediately who it was, even though her voice was slightly lower, and it sounded shaky, as if she was keeping some sort of emotion in check.

"Yes?"

"This is Dinah. Barbara gave me your cell number, and I meant to call you earlier, but I had to pick up my sister, and we didn't get home until about twenty minutes ago. I hope I didn't wake you up." I looked at my Betty Boop alarm clock even though I knew already what time it was. I turned my stereo down then went to lie back on my bed.

"No, you didn't wake me. I couldn't sleep, so I'm glad you decided to call me now." Understatement of the century.

"I didn't' think you would be asleep. I remember you saying once that your bed time is around one or two in the morning. Besides that... This may sound weird, but I was going to call you tomorrow, but just now, I had this feeling that I had to call you tonight instead… that it was important I call you now instead of tomorrow." I felt my body freeze. Had I somehow done that?

"That doesn't sound weird at all," I said. 'Considering who I'm talking to and the week I've been having.' I thought. "So, why did you have to go pick up your sister? I didn't even know you had a sister."

"I don't. Not really. She sort of adopted me when Barbara took me in. Reluctantly, but yeah. She went to a party downtown, and since she doesn't like to drive, she called Barbara to go get her when it started to suck, and because she figured I needed some fresh air, Barbara sent me," she explained.

"Oh," was all I could think to say at first. There was an awkward silence after that. 'How do I ask her where she's been?' "How are you?" 'I guess that's the way to start.' There was a short silence and I was almost certain she wasn't going to talk to me about this past week, but after about a twenty second wait, she sighed sadly.

"Well, worse than Sunday afternoon," 'Worse?' I thought, remembering the force she'd used to hold on to me. 'What could possibly be worse than that?' "but better than early Monday morning." Which led to my only conclusion that whatever happened to Dinah occurred Sunday night.

"I'm sure Ms. Gordon is at the point where she wouldn't want to see me after school hours. She wouldn't tell me what happened, but she told me that it's been a really rough week," I told my new friend.

"I'm surprised she's told you that much." Dinah replied, which made me frown.

There was more silence. I didn't know what to say, since I was too afraid to ask what happened on Sunday night, or worse, ask and be left with a lot of riddles in place of answers I'd been originally looking for, so I stayed on the phone, silent. I knew I was just burning my cell phone minutes, but that didn't matter to me then. This may sound weird, but just the sound of her breathing on the other end soothed me. At least I knew she was there and I didn't need to worry, but I still wouldn't be satisfied until I saw her at school or-

"Hey, you wanna go see a movie tomorrow? I think that romantic comedy you were talking about came out today, so we can catch a matinee of that." I said, staring at the wall. I figured if she liked movies so much, then maybe going to one might help cheer her up.

"I don't know. I'll ask Barbara."

"You do that. I think it'll be fun. Whatever you want to see- popcorn, candy... It's on me."

"You don't have to-" I cut her off.

"I want to," I said, and it was the absolute truth. "Look, maybe going out for an afternoon will cheer you up a little. It's not going to reverse whatever happened, but maybe it will somehow help you get through it. And-" I wasn't sure if I should have said this, but thinking back, it may have been what hooked her into going with me to begin with. "And to be honest with you, this would be just as much for my benefit as it would be for yours."

Silence, oh how I hate thee. Let me count thy ways...

"Okay. I'll ask Barbara, but I'm sure she'll say yes. Only on one condition though." She paused, and I was ready to defend myself and tell her I wouldn't say a word about Sunday night, but she spoke again before I could. "I pay for lunch either before or after the movie." I couldn't keep the grin off of my face.

"Deal."

I stood in front of the high school's flagpole, where Dinah and I had agreed she'd meet me. My mother was going to drive us to the movie theater on her way to run errands, and I was to call her after the movie with further plans. Not long after I got there, I saw Dinah running towards me.

"I'm not late, am I?" she called from the other side of the school's parking lot. I shook my head.

"No, you're right on time!" I yelled back. Dinah seemed almost excited about hanging out with me, and that made me feel even better about the outing. Both of us walked over to the black Sedan when I gestured towards it, and got inside. My mother looked back at us, giving me a look I knew all too well. She was waiting expectantly for an introduction. "Dinah, this is my mother, Mom, this is Dinah." They shook hands briefly.

"So you're Dinah. It is a pleasure to meet you." My mother started the car and drove us to the movie theater. She waved quickly before backing out of the parking lot. As we stood in line, I asked, "So did you want to see On the Bus, or Underworld?"

"Uh, On the Bus, I think." Dinah replied, then, "I guess we can go see that, since Helena wants to see Underworld, and I sorta want to see it with her." I nodded and paid for the tickets, some popcorn, and two small drinks. I must say, I felt very butch then.

The movie started out average enough. All the main characters were introduced in the beginning, then each person's dilemma, and thus creating the perfect reasoning for the man and woman to meet up, but from there, I don't know what happened. Oh, I'm sure they found out each other's secrets, fell in love anyway, got together somehow, lived happily ever after and had beautiful Hollywood children with perfect teeth, but my mind had stopped focusing on the movie by that point. You see, at about the half hour mark, Dinah had reached into the popcorn bucket which I had settled on my right knee, and her palm brushed against my knuckles, which were curled around the lid. I suppose it would have been the perfect cliché moment if my whole body hadn't tingled slightly in a nonsexual way, or if the humming- that damn humming!- hadn't gone up a notch in volume, drowning out the indecipherable whispering and making it almost impossible to concentrate on anything else. I kept my eyes on the screen as Dinah quickly took her hand completely from the popcorn bucket. In the corner of my eye, I saw her looking at me, but I couldn't tell in the dark theater what her expression was.

I pretended to be engrossed in the movie. If I freaked out and she found me weird, she would never open up to me and trust me with her secrets. Something else: I felt that it wasn't Dinah that needed this friendship, it was me. It was then I remembered Ms. Gordon's words, hearing them very faintly within the humming. It felt as if Ms. Gordon knew something that neither Dinah or I would dare to figure out, but what could that be?

Dinah's shoe nudged mine, and I was startled out of my thoughts. I noticed that the movie was over then, and the credits rolled as some female with a beautiful singing voice went on about unexpected love. I looked over at her.

"You okay?" she asked me. I nodded with a weak smile, doing a very good impression, if I'm not mistaken, of her.

"Yeah I'm fine." She didn't believe me, but let it slide. Hell, I doubt the village idiot would've believed me then. Dinah must have gotten a glimpse of what it was like talking to her.

"Come one, you've got to call your mom and tell her I'm treating you to lunch." She looked at her watch as the lights were fully coming on. "Or and early dinner for me." I nodded and called my mother, who wasn't at her phone, and left a message. We walked about four blocks to an old fifties and sixties style burger joint you'd see on Happy Days.

"Ooh, I want a broiled chunk of a cows ass surrounded by carbohydrates, tortured spuds dipped in grease, and carbonated caffeine with a slight lime flavor added to it," I said as Dinah and I found a booth to sit at. Dinah looked as if she was trying to figure out what I had just said.

"So... You want a burger, fries and Sprite?" I nodded.

"Yes'm."

"Why couldn't you just say that?"

"S'not as fun."

"Also not as gross sounding," Dinah retorted. I only grinned at her slightly disgusted look, and to my surprise, she smiled back at me with a look that said 'You're weird'. Instead, she said, "I'm glad you drug me out of the house. I think... I think it was what I needed to start the healing process- and god, I sound like Barbara." My grin lessened into a sad, sympathetic smile. She watched me for a second as if she debated on saying the next sentence to me.

"I've been thinking a lot about my mother lately. She brought me to my foster parents when I was six, but I remember so much about her, most of all, the day she left me with the Redmonds. I- I guess some memories came back when... she did, only to leave me again." Her eyes locked onto mine as she spoke, and I was intent on hearing her story, humming be damned. "She came back on Sunday, and she wanted me to go with her. I was so hurt; I couldn't stand to be there. I just left. The only place I knew to go was to you... Your house. Thank you, by the way, for that."

"You're welcome anytime," I said earnestly. Dinah looked down then at the table as she tucked hair behind her right ear, and the bat/bird earring showed.

"I left when you had fallen asleep and went back to my mother. I told her that as unconventional as it may seem, everything I've gained here in New Gotham was what I'd always wanted. I had friends- or a friend, who truly cared for me, as you'd proved this last week, and Barbara and even Helena loved me in their own ways... It was so hard to tell her no, that she'd missed out on us being a family when she gave me up ten years ago. So, she left again on Sunday night, and I know I will never see her again." She was silent after that, and I was almost too afraid to ask her my next question for fear of her clamming up again. Almost.

"Do you know why she gave you up? Did you ask her before she left?" It probably wasn't the best time to ask, or even the best way to word it, but with this sort of thing, what/when is? Dinah nodded.

"She said that I'd showed no signs of being..." If I had seen her lips move at all at that point after the word 'being', I would have sworn to every higher power that she'd said the word(?) 'metahuman', but Dinah didn't move her lips. Still, I heard the term 'metahuman' from somewhere, and it lingered in my mind. No matter what it may mean, it made me shiver with the unexpected cold sensation that traveled up and down my spine. "Like her," Dinah finished. I watched as Dinah fought so hard to keep tears from falling, but blast them, they fell anyway. I reached over towards the jukebox shaped napkin holder and grabbed a napkin before handing it to her. She took it with slight gratitude before wiping her tears. "I can't help but wonder if- If I had done something- anything... If I had only shown some sign that I was like her after all, maybe she wouldn't have left me with- with... them." Tears fell slowly, one by one, and despite her sadness, I couldn't help but look at her and think 'You're so beautiful, Dinah'. And she was- is. Heartbreakingly so. I watched her as she wiped more tears away. "I'm sorry I-"

"We are not supposed to become our parents, Dinah. We are to grow and learn with their guidance and advice, but in the long run, we become our own person. You mother must have had a far greater reason to leave you somewhere else, or she would have kept a close watch on you and never gave you up at all." More tears fell and Dinah nodded.

"Thank you." She let out a small, almost forced laugh as our food came.

"There's your chunk of cow ass." I clapped my hands in mock excitement.

"Yay!"


	4. Chapter 4: Illness

**Chapter Four**

**Illness**

The conversation ended after that, and our food was eaten in silence. While Dinah paid for the meal, I called my mother again and told her where we were. I stressed my 'I love you' at the end of the call. She came and got us about fifteen minutes later, and we dropped Dinah off at the high school.

When I got home, I went to my room and sat down on my bed, trying to put some of the pieces together. It made more sense than anything else about Dinah, and I knew from the look in her eyes that she was telling the truth.

When my father came home about two hours later, he used the rest of the sunlight as one of the last opportunities of the year to barbeque. Both my mother and I could tell something was bothering him, though. Even without this new... thing I seem to have, I would have been able to just look at his face and mannerisms and know something was wrong. We left him alone on the back deck, but when we sat down to eat, we couldn't keep it quiet anymore.

"Jason," my mother said softly when my father hadn't touched his food after saying grace, "are you alright?" She touched his shoulder, and I could feel the tension from across the dinner table.

"We'll talk later," my father grunted curtly, not looking up. '...precious daughter...' Again, like at the restaurant, I didn't see his lips move, yet I still heard it from him. I frowned. Nothing else was said until the table was cleared. Only then did my father say, "Gabby, go to your room. Let your mom and I talk."

"Is it about me? Look, I've got the right to know if it's-"

"Just do as I say, Gabrielle!" Just the tone of his voice was enough to make me jump, but the use of my full name let me know that this was serious. Without another word, I left the room, and the door hadn't even closed all the way before I heard him say, "Linda, they called today."

"Who?"

"The Institute. In San Diego." There was a gasp from my mother. I closed the door until it was open only a crack.

"What did they want?"

"They wanted us to go to their branch in Bludhaven to check up on Gabby. We moved away from San Diego to get her away from all the testing, and they follow us here, anyway." His voice was harsh, angry.

"What if it's wise? What if now is the time to check her again?"

"She hasn't shown any signs of it yet, so she is fine. She'll be fine. Besides, we've done what they suggested. It's over."

"James, you know better than I do that it's not over. It's going to show up, and we've got to check to make sure it's not just hidden. And..." My mother tailed off.

"Linda?"

"I think we should tell her." I heard footsteps. I think my father was pacing.

"We can't do that. She's finally happy in New Gotham. She's got friends, her grade are excellent, and- we can't."

"What about when she goes off to college? What about that, James? She'll be happy there, with other lesbians to talk to as well, and all of a sudden- BAM!- it happens, and she doesn't know what's going on, or even a way to keep it under control-"

"Shh, she'll hear you." My dad lowered his voice, but I could still hear it. Barely. "We'll tell her before that. I won't keep it from her most of her life like my mother did to me. I just want her to be happy NOW."

"But telling her just months before her 18th birthday may not be enough time for her. She will need to process the information and do what she can to control it..."

I couldn't listen to anymore. 'What's going on? Am I sick? Is that why there is all that humming? Do I have a weird brain tumor thing?' I asked myself. I was getting scared. My father seemed to be fine, since he was talking as if he had whatever it is that I might have. Something I got genetically from him. I looked over at the other side of the room, where my computer was on stand by.

Each search for any Institute came up blank. The name would always be more to the title, never just 'The Institute'. Well, if you don't count the pig farm in Kentucky somewhere. 'That's odd,' I thought, 'You'd think that they'd have a website if they have more than one branch.' I tried looking under hospitals, institutes, even laboratories. Nothing. The strangest part of all of this: I didn't remember any tests. I didn't remember any Institute before we moved away from San Diego. In fact, I thought we had moved to New Gotham because that was where Uncle Leonard lived, and they wanted me near him because he's a homosexual as well. I tried to think back to when I was ten and eleven. Nope, I don't remember any sort of tests being taken. I don't even remember going to any doctors. Even now, I don't remember going to see any doctors since I've lived in New Gotham. I never had the need to go. I thought more and more about my childhood. Something wasn't fitting. I kept coming up with blanks. Like, I could think of an entire school day, then, after I left school it would all be a blank.

Something caught my attention when I thought through various memories. I remembered many times when I would get angry or upset over something, usually homework of some sort, and my mother would insist that I calm down. I remembered a look upon her face that I hadn't noticed before: fear. It seemed almost as if they were afraid of stressing me out. Did they move me to New Gotham so that I won't fall apart due to stress? What would that stress trigger, some sort of brain... thing? I looked back at the computer screen. I was too afraid to look up anything along the lines of brain tumors and the like, but something still made me go to Dogpile and look up 'metahuman'. The only thing I got in responses to my search request was 'did you mean 'Metal human'?' No, of course I didn't mean metal human. It was such an odd term I heard from Dinah that I couldn't have gotten it wrong.

The strong sense of excitement I had in the restaurant at that term made me curious as to what it meant. Looking in the dictionary I grabbed from my bookshelf, there was no such word as meta human, but the term meta alone meant 'a change or alteration' something to do with a change in or of development, so I could only guess that this meant a change of my being if I was one of these metahumans. No shit, Sherlock. Why do you think I was freaking out so bad?

Nothing else interested me about the search on metahumans or anything regarding the brain, as I was too much into my thoughts to be, so I shut the computer down and lay on my bed, almost paralyzed with fear. The fact that I didn't know what was wrong with me scared me, and the fact that my parents seemed to know more than I did and weren't going to tell me about it worried me as well. Does it all mean I am just some altered human? And what/where is this Institute? If I couldn't get the address online, then maybe I could find it in the phonebook. I doubted it. I mean, if you can't find it on the internet, then apparently it doesn't exist, and that, too worried me. I don't know, a lot of things had been worrying me lately, bringing on the stress that my parents had been apparently trying to avoid. As I thought about the Institute and brain tumors and metahumans and Dinah, my eyes slowly fought to stay open, and I knew I was about to fall asleep.

_[Music of my youth, music in which the radio station referred to as 'oldies', a term that always made me cringe, plays on the radio station as I drive slowly through the school zone of the neighborhood. Children ages six to twelve stream out of the school's doors and walk every which way, eager to get home to their after school snacks and cartoons. I park our newest addition to the Andrews family, the brand new Sedan and watch the children of all shapes and sizes walk to their school buses or to the sidewalk. My hands grip the steering wheel as I try not to think of where I am going next, where I must bring my daughter. I try not to think about the fact that the doctor would make sure she won't remember any of it, either. It is for the best. Right, Andrews, keep telling yourself that if it'll ease the guilt. It doesn't. It never does._

_I shake my head as I see my daughter, my healthy looking, beautiful daughter who looks more like her mother everyday, walk out of the school and wait by the plants at the front. I open the door. "Gabby!" I wave my hand as she looks up and around, then she runs towards me._

_"Hi Daddy."_

_"How was your day?" Her blonde curls bobbed as she moves her head from side to side, thinking of her answer._

_"It was okay. Miranda kept pulling my hair, though."_

_"Did you tell the teacher?" I ask her distractedly as I start the car again and slowly maneuver us out of the parking lot._

_"No, she never believes me. She's always saying I have an over active imagination, like the time I swore I heard Jimmy say that she was fat." I shake my head._

_"Well, maybe he did say that, but you shouldn't have repeated it."_

_"I won't. Where are we going?" I knew she'd ask me as soon as she saw that we weren't going right on the main road towards our two bedroom condominium, but left towards the toll way, yet still her innocent question caught me off guard. I hadn't told her about taking any of her time away from her afternoon._

_"We're going to the doctor today," I tell her. That, at least, is the truth. Of sorts._

_"But I'm not sick. I feel fine." She got an uneasy look, and I'd bet half of my life she doesn't even know why she's so scared._

_"I know you're not sick sweetheart. This is a check up to make sure you don't get sick." She seems to accept this. Thankfully. I don't know how many more times I can tell her that lie, even if she doesn't know we've had conversations similar to this one many times before-_

_The scene inside the car fades slowly into white, then the sight of the hallway is before me. The hallway seems so much longer than I remember it. I hear voices from the door before I can even see it. 'Should we tell her?' It was the only one phrase, a question that echoed down the hallway before I can even get to the door. Slowly, no matter how quickly I walk towards it, I inch my way towards it. 'Should we tell her?' Finally, I reached out, unafraid this time. I try the doorknob. Locked. I feel like an outsider. Why won't they let me in?]_

"Booboo bee doo, boop!" My Betty Boop alarm clock went off at my set time of six o'clock in the morning, but it was Sunday, and no cartoons were worth getting up for. I turned off my alarm and shifted to my side. First my new friend, and now my dad. I knew this dream, at least, actually happened. I remembered the day Miranda kept pulling my hair, and I remembered being in love with her despite (or perhaps because of) it, but I didn't, as my father suspected, remember getting into the car with him. In fact, right when the school bell rang that day, my mind went blank when I searched for the rest of the memory.


	5. Chapter 5: Driven

**Chapter Five**

**Driven**

Sunday was long and lazy. Not once did I give any thought to school work, and I didn't join the land of the living until my father had knocked on my door at around ten and was surprised to see that I was awake. I had been for the last four hours, lost in thought. Because of the conversation I'd overheard (not to mention the dream I had) the night before, I didn't rise to my father's bribe of banana pancakes, my favorite breakfast food. Nor did I even look up at my door as it'd opened, revealing my father's tall frame.

"You going to eat?" he asked me. It was then that I looked up at him slowly. My father was a lanky guy, and he made my five foot nine and a half inch height seem almost dwarfish. He peered in and watched me. I looked into eyes much like those I see in the mirror each day, and the humming almost ceased momentarily as I thought 'I have your eyes. What else have I inherited from you?' I didn't dare say it- I was too afraid- but the thought must have showed up on my face, for guilt, and almost remorse showed up on his. He couldn't look me in the eye, and taking my silence as a 'no', he left my room, closing the door securely behind him.

He came back when my alarm clock said it was near two in the afternoon. He knocked, but entered before I could give any sort of reply. My father took a couple of steps into the room, closed the door behind him, and stared at me as if to think about something really deeply. '...hear me?' I made a face unintentionally that showed I was concentrating on a sound. '..hear...me?'

My father closed his eyes, almost tightly. I watched him, slightly confused, and suddenly the silence was broken by 'Gabby... can... you hear me?' My eyes widened, and on instinct, I forced my face to go neutral as if to show my father (when his eyes opened and fixed themselves hopefully on me) that I hadn't heard anything. But I had. I know it came from him, and his lips never moved. I watched as he thought that to me. I knew he wanted me to respond, but I couldn't. What if by responding, he'd take me back to that Institute? "Are you still not speaking to me?" he asked, walking over to my desk. He scooted my desk chair closer to the bed where I had been reading Substitute for Love by Karin Kallmaker.

As he sat down, I said, "I just don't know what to say." Then, wanting to anger him enough to forget his mental message to me, I continued sarcastically, "Its not everyday my father yells at me for no apparent reason." Instead of anger, I got a calm response. I was not sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

"Touché'. I'm sorry about that. I just had to talk to your mother about some financial matters that had just popped up. They made me frustrated, and I took some of it out on you. I'm sorry." Had I not heard my parents' conversation, I might have believed my father's lie, played nice, and forgave him. Instead, I only nodded and played nice.

"I guess I understand that," I told him, putting my book on my bed, mere centimeters away from my left butt cheek. "Is everything okay? I asked, putting on my innocence.

"I talked to your mother, and we worked something out. It'll take a couple of years, but we'll figure it out." Again, I nodded, unsure what else to say. "Look," my father said, startling me, "I want you to know that I'm here if you want or need to talk about anything. No matter how strange it may seem. Don't be afraid to come to me - your mother, too. We're here for you."

I just stared at him blankly.

"Okay daddy," I said, and that was it. My father looked as if he wanted to say more, but had decided against it. He stood up with a short nod, and slowly left the room. I sat there stunned. I knew then that I wasn't sick. I was different, but I wasn't sick. It was then that I remembered the almost untold legends of this city, and the secrets the older generation of Gotham City and New Gotham kept. What if I was one of them? Well, not the ones what run around in costume saving the place every couple of nights, but the ones that are just there? The ones that hide the unusual things they can do. What if it wasn't a brain thing, but real telepathy? I don't know how or why, but my parents did, and they sure as heck weren't going to tell me anything. It would make sense. More sense, actually, than my theory of being sick. I couldn't just push back the thought that I was even more of a freak. I'm a lesbian with telepathic abilities that my parents probably tested me for as a kid. Nothing showed up then, though they knew I had it. No doubt, my dad knew it had surfaced or something and that may have been what he was hinting at. Would they have told me everything they were hiding from me had I told them about this first? Maybe, but I was too afraid of going back to that 'Institute', where, I'm pretty sure (after having that 'dream' about my dad and putting some of the pieces, what little I had, together) they had erased my memory of doing these 'tests'. It made me feel uneasy about the possible reasoning for erasing one's memories. Sure, I had this... thing that you only read about or saw on TV, so I can see why they'd want to learn the how or why, but I was no one's lab mouse.

My body jumped when I heard the doorbell ring. I looked over at the clock. My father hadn't left my room more than 5 minutes before that. "GABBY! YOU'VE GOT COMPANY!" I got up, not sure who it would be, but hoping it was Kelly coming to tell me she was sorry. It was Dinah, and I smiled when I saw her.

"Hey. I was hoping you'd be up for a ride. I got the car today, so I am just roaming around the city a bit." I shrugged, and then turned to look at my dad, who had answered the door.

"This is Dinah, Dad." I told him, and he nodded.

"Yes, we met. Go have fun, but be back before it gets dark."

"I guess that's a 'yes' then." I said. I didn't worry about a coat or anything except for what I had with me. I was ready to leave the house. I followed Dinah to the street where there was a nice H2 Hummer. How she could get to dive such an expensive car was beyond me, and what puzzled me more was how Barbara could afford a car like that on a teacher's salary. Rumor had it, she was the daughter of the old commissioner, but even so, I don't think they made THAT much money. I got in, and Dinah started the car.

"Pick the station," Dinah said once we were about 2 blocks away from my house, and one block away from the school.

"Uh, 91.1 FM," I replied.

"Ooh, an 80's girl, huh? I knew I liked you for a reason." She turned the radio on and I saw that it was already set there. A song I recognized from the movie 'Dirty Dancing' was on at the moment. We were silent for a few minutes as Dinah found some of the city's back roads and we just cruised. I had to admit that it was quite nice. Dinah looked as if she was concentrating on the road, but I felt the static in the car, and it felt to me as if she was thinking very hard, wondering if she should ask me something and initiate something.

After a while I asked, "Do you need to talk about something?" Dinah looked over at me in surprise as if she'd been caught, then she shrugged.

"Actually, I have this feeling that you do." This took me completely off guard. I shook my head.

"No, I-"

"I could tell when I came to your house today that you weren't... yourself." 'I haven't been myself for over a week now.' I thought slightly bitterly. "If you don't want to talk about it, I understand, considering where we've been the last week."

"I got scared last night after we hung out, that's all. I've been doing a lot of thinking and I scared myself. I feel a lot better now," I told her. "It was just my stupid imagination or something." Dinah nodded, and we continued on in silence. Watching the scenery was actually beautiful as the brown and yellow leaves swirled in the wind, and the sun shone almost without heat down on us. The radio station continued to play the songs I listened to on my computer most of the time, and Dinah and I stayed in a companionable silence throughout the whole drive. An hour and a half later, we were back in front of my house, and Dinah had turned the car off.

"Thanks for riding along with me. I know it was boring, but I needed the company."

"Hey, it wasn't boring. It was better than sitting at my computer trying to write an outline for a paper I have written on Christopher Columbus, one I have written every year for the past 3 years. Hell, I should dig up one of those and turn it in to save me the trouble... Besides, I liked it." I leaned forward intending to give her a hug, and forgot at the last second about her not liking to be touched. She had hugged me anyway, somewhat awkwardly, and I got out of the car. She waved to me before starting the car up and driving away. It was then I knew my life had just gotten that much more difficult, for it was then that I knew I had developed a crush on my new friend.


	6. Chapter 6: Science

**Chapter Six**

**Science**

There was a huge change between Dinah and me whenever we hung out after that. She smiled more, which was always wonderful to see. She was getting through the disappearance of her mother. I found myself blushing almost constantly when I was near her, though I tried not to show it. Though I got a clue about the mystery that is my now best friend, it was one of those clues you only understand the meaning of at the end of the mystery when the other ninty eight percent of it had been solved. It seemed then that aspects of my life that were so simple mere weeks ago had become a bunch of mini mysteries all tangled into one, all of them waiting to be solved. One thing that wasn't a mystery however, was my growing attraction or Dinah. She would mention a lot of guys that she found cute, so I knew she was straight, a fact I already guessed. Knowing that didn't help the slight envy I felt for every guy she referred to as a 'hottie'. I felt I was breaking a really important lesbian commandment by falling for a straight girl, but it wasn't like I had a choice in the matter. When she spoke of such guys, I would just nod my head and never contribute. I'm sure Dinah assumed I just didn't like anyone at the moment, or I was picky about the guys I crushed on.

I couldn't, though, believe my eyes when I got to my lab class about a week after learning about the Institute. The first thing I saw was my friend looking at Matt Kendall of all people. Matt Kendall, my dunderheaded lab partner who rarely had a clue as to what time and day it is, let alone the fact that a good sixty percent of New Gotham High's sophmore class had a mad crush on him. I'm sure that even if he did know, he'd be too busy listening to some underground, Old Gotham rock band that no one will ever hear of to really care. 'Oh God, of all people why HIM?' Truth be told, I'd have thought the same about any of the guys Dinah tended to drool shamelessly over, having known most of them since pre-middle school.

I walked to the empty seat Dinah had put her backpack in as a way to save it for me, and I watched her as she continued to stare. As I sat down, I said (mustering up everything so that I didn't reveal any disgust in my voice or on my face), "Matt Kendall, huh? Not bad." Sure, not bad at all.

She could have fallen for some scaley guy with yellow teeth, but at least he'd contribute to a conversation. 'Okay okay.' I chastized myself for continuing to be mean to Matt in my mind and not to his face where he could defend himself. Dinah looked at me sheepishly.

"Am I that transparent?" 'You can't see through windows as clearly.' I thought.

"Please," I scoffed, "you're obviously infatuated." The next words were spoken only because I wanted to play the role of the encouraging best friend, and play it wll enough to earn Oscars... an Emmy perhaps. "Hey, maybe you should ask him to the dance."

"I thought we agreed the dance would be lame."

"Oh, I'm changing the forcast. The dance is looking up due to the possible slow dance potential between you and the hottest guy in school. Carpe Diem."

I knew that I was just putting myself through Hell, but I didn't know what else to do. I couldn't just be selfish and say 'Yes Dinah, stay with me during the dance and watch Xena reruns with me.', as was the original game plan for the next night.

"Right. Do me a favor. Switch me lab partners." She said. It was like a dream come true. No Matt? No extra homework? Better grades?

"Seriously?" She didn't answer me, instead she got up and moved towards where I would have gone in the next five minutes after role call. I felt almost bad for pawning Matt off to Dinah so easily, but Dinah's partner was a girl known for getting her labs right. She was known more as 'The Charmed One' rather than her actual name, Gina Halliwell, and she tended to like sitting closer to the blackboard. When I walked up to her she was taking notes from the said blackboard. We were going to dissect frogs that day, the one lab that most guys had waited all semester for, and some girls, myself included, dreaded. I sat next to her and said, "Dinah and I switched lab partners, if you don't mind. Only for this lab, mind you, but yeah." Gina looked up at me and nodded.

"Sure, I don't mind. May I ask why, though?" I only gestured in their general direction. "Oh, she likes him too?"

"Yup." I replied, trying not to watch Dinah's failed attempt to flirt with Matt.

"You don't?"

"Don't what?" I asked, not sure what she meant at first, but then my face changed. "Oh! Spare me," I said, but stopped, remembering that I wasn't going to be mean, and certainly not out loud. So I sat and said nothing e;se as the bell rang and our teacher handed out a worksheet on the frog's anatomy, and we began to work.

"So, did you score a date to the dance?" I asked after school that same day. The class after lab science for me was video production, and it was in a smaller classroom across the school, so I had to leave right as that bell rang so I wouldn't be late. I couldn't ask Dinah after class, but we met up at the flagpole when school ended, and I waited with Dinah for Ms. Gordon.

Dinah shook her head.

"No, but we had a conversation of sorts. Called me Donna, though." She sounded a little deflated from that.

"He did?" Despite what me, myself, and I had agreed earlier, I couldn't help but think 'He's more of an idiot than I thought! How can anyone look at a girl like Dinah and forget her name?' "Don't worry about it," I said instead, "He'll get to know you better, and your name will be all he'll be able to say." At least... that was how it was with me... Dinah smiled at th idea.

"Thanks." I smiled back at her and tried not to show any other thing but encouragement. I nodded past her, then stepped away from Dinah when I saw Ms. gordon come up to us.

"Hello Gabby," she greeted pleasently.

"Hey." I smiled at her quickly. I could feel that Ms. Gordon wanted to ask me something, perhaps if I have forgotten what we had talked about a couple weeks ago.

"Are you ready to go? You said you'd help me clean the basement today." She shot Dinah a knowing look as if to say, 'Remember?'

"Oh! Ugh, okay. I've gotta go. I'll call you." Dinah said all of this quickly.

"Sounds like a plan. I'll see you both tomorrow." I told her.

"Bye Gabby," Ms. Gordon said.

"Bye," Binah echoed. I waved at them both, then turned towards my house just as our family car pulled up beside me near the crosswalk. My father was inside, and he rolled down the window as I walked up to it.

"Hey Sweety. How come you're still at school? It is almost three thirty.

School let out an hour ago."

"I was waiting with Dinah for her guardian, who's one of the teachers." I explained. "She was waiting to get a ride from her." My father just nodded to that, then patted the passenger seat beside him.

"Come on, I'll give you a ride home." Instantly, the image of my eleven year old self popped into my head, and I took two steps back.

"It's only three blocks, dad. I think I'll walk." My father looked slightly taken aback and slightly hurt by this.

"It'll only take a couple of minutes to get home," he said. It felt odd to me that I was treating him like a stranger with candy instead of the man who inspired my first word.

"That's alright dad, I'll meet you at home."

"Alright Sweety." He hesitated. "I'll see you at home." The window was then rolled up and I watched the car go in the direction of my house. I followed it at a leisurly pace, lost in thought. My father was onto me. I wasn't sure about what he knew or suspected, but he knew something, I was sure of it. He might be biding his time and/or was waiting for me to say something first, but that wasn't going to happen until I knew what was going on first.


	7. Chapter 7: Vixen

**Chapter Seven**

**Vixen**

The next morning, Dinah called my cell phone and told me she would be late and not to wait up for her before school, so I felt weird because I was alone in the morning. I saw Kelly, and she saw me, met my gaze, then looked down. I shook my head and continued on my way to my first class. I went to lab class later that day still unsure of why Dinah was late, but just before the bell rang, in came the devil herself. She looked good. Not at all like the Dinah I knew, but some evil twin who looked really, REALLY good in that shirt. Of course, had I been a Tex Avery cartoon (my favorite cartoon, not because of the shows themselves, but the name was what made me start watching them... it just sounded like a cool name), my tongue would have rolled out like her red carpet, my eyes would have grown ten times their normal size and shaped into red hearts, and my lips would have curled into an 'o' shape while hanging six inches from my face as I whistled and howled.

That didn't happen, but that doesn't mean that wasn't how I felt. Lust almost completely filled me, and I felt just as dumbstruck as Matt (as well as half of the rest of the guys in that class) looked. She glanced my way as she flipped her hair over her shoulder (something I have never seen her do before), and I did my best to smile an encouraging smile. I watched as she continued towards Matt, the lucky bastard, and they started to talk. She had paper in her hands, and showed them to Matt, who seemed excited. Something else was said, and by the way she looked back at me in this 'did you hear that' manner, I assumed he asked her about the dance. I winked at her, hoping it didn't look as suggestive as it felt.

"Is it her?" A voice to my right made me snap out of my thoughts and look toward the speaker, who was Gina. She gave a small nod in the direction I was staring. "It's not Matt or any other guy you like. It's her, isn't it?"

I just stared at her.

"No," I lied. Well, it was not really a lie. It wasn't her I liked... I think... I think it was her I loved. Gina only smiled.

"Hey, it's okay. I'm not going to say anything. Besides, its not like people don't already know."

"Know what?" I asked, somewhat worried.

"Well, they don't know, but to them, anyone who hasn't dated in such and such amount of time is either a) really ugly, b) snobby, or c) gay. Seeing as you're not ugly, and I've never seen you act snobby towards anyone, I assumed you were the last one. So, am I right?" I sighed, feeling slightly embaressed, but I gave the tiniest of nods.

"Screw what they say." I said.

"How long have you liked her?

"I don't know, a week? A month ago when I first met her? I just wanted to get to know her. The more I found out about her, the more I wanted to know still." I told her. 'And now I 'm stuck watching her be happy with someone else.' I thought.

"You know, I've seen you two together this last month. You're such a good friend to her, yelling at those who still call her 'Zipper Girl' and making sure she's not walking alont most of the day. Not even my best friends of ten years have done that for me. Maybe she'll see how good you are to her and want more than friendship from you."

"Man, that's a wonderful thought, Gina, but there are a couple of flaws to that theory: we're both female and she's straight." Gina smiled.

"It's the age of experimentation. You never know, she might start questioning..."

"Are you always this optimistic?" I asked.

"Yep!" She smiled, genuinly happy, and I saw a small glint in her eye. I wished I could go back to being like that.

"So what about you?" I asked, trying to take the heat away from me.

"What do you mean?"

"You're never seen with anyone as far as I know, you're definately not ugly or snobby, so can I consider you option c?" I asked.

"I am what many would call 'really confused'." I couldn't help the laugh that came from me after that statement. We then got to work using our text book to go over our answers from the dissection the day before. We'd gotten all but one question right, and the two of us worked well together as we talked about her love of Charmed and my love of Xena reruns all because of the shared names.

One thing that bothered me was the fact that my now second biggest secret was being kept from Dinah, yet Gina, a girl I had just gotten to know, knew about it. How was I to get to know more about my best friend and be there for her when I myself was holding back? I wanted to come out to her, but the timing was never right. Sometimes, it was because when we spoke, it was at school and I didn't want to be overheard. Sometimes it would be that we would be in the middle of such a good conversation that I would forget.

Everytime, though it was because I was too afraid of her then taking that information that I'm gay and figuring out my true feeling for her. Though the fact that I'm a lesbian might not phase her, the fact that I was in love with her almost certainly will. The timing might have been right then, though. Her mind was busy with Matt and the dance. Maybe in between slow songs when Matt and Dinah would be returing to the sidelines, I can explain to her why I wasn't dancing with anyone. I'd tell her then as soon as I got her away from the groups for a minute. Who knows, if she takes the fact that I'm a lesbian well, I will think about possibly telling her about the last few weeks truthfully.

As it turned out, nothing happened the way I'd hoped it would. Dinah had changed out of her vixen outfit, as I had come to call it, and looked more like my best friend and love interest. I smiled as I waited for her at our usual spot at the flagpole, and together we walked inside. The first thing I saw upon getting inside was a banmer that said 'Big Dance Tonight'. Looking around, the second thing I saw was Matt. "Guess who's headed our way." I said in almost a teasing tone. Then, I pushed her towards him. I stood and watched as she spoke to him, and something happened that I didn't expect:

Matt's face turned from his usual casual look to upset. What did Dinah say?

Suddenly, he walked up to me.

"How you doing?" he asked. I just didn't know what to say. I wanted to ask what she said to him, but I wanted to hear it from Dinah.

"Pretty good," I replied on autopilot.

"Want to go dance?"

"Sure." As soon as that confused word left my mouth, I regretted it. Matt lead me to the dance hall, and I try to convay the messege to Dinah that I didn't know what was going on by shaking my head. Dinah shrugged, hurt, and I felt as if my heart would rip apart my entire chest. I hurt her. I never meant to hurt her. I should have tried to give some sort of excuse, like I was waiting for someone, but the whole thing caught me completely off guard.

'Now I'm about to lose her over a guy I can hardly tolerate longer than I have to.' That wasn't really true. Clueless as he was, Matt was a sweet guy, and not bad as a dancer. If I wasn't craving to be in Dinah's arms as the slower pop beat of some boyband played, I might have enjoyed the dance on friendly terms. It was all mere jealousy that made me think the things I had, and though I felt bad, at times I knew I wouldn't take them back, and I didn't care if that made me a bad person. It was easy to see why he had a lot of the girls in my class drooling over him, though. When the song was over, Matt and I moved apart, and as a new song started, we still stood there, still. "Thanks for the dance," I said after a moment.

"No problem. I just hope my dancing with you doesn't mess with your friendship with Dinah. I know you're close, even though she just got here.

Look, I needed to ask you something, but didn't know how to word it, so I used that dance as time to find the right way to ask... Gabby, do you ever feel static electricity when you're with Dinah?" My mind immediately went to the night the humming had started. Since then the static I've felt hadn't lessened, and had, in fact, increased at the movie theater.

"No," I lied, and Matt nodded.

"Oh," He sounded disappointed. "Well, thanks Gabby," he said. "I kinda miss having you as a lab partner." I smiled.

"Only 'cause I gave you the answers." At that, Matt chuckled.

"That wasn't the only reason... but it helped." I laughed almost without any humor in it. "See you around."

"Bye Matt."

That night, I couldn't sleep. 'What if she hates me now? What if she doesn't want to speak to me ever again?' I almost dreaded going to school the next morning. As it turned out, I needn't have worried. She waited for me at the flagpole and she looked like she too, hadn't slept the night before. She stood up from the bench next to the flagpole as I slowly, tentatively approached her. She said nothing as she entered my personal space, and I braced myself for her anger, for the slap in the face I felt I deserved. Instead, she wrapped her arms around me and hugged me. "I'm so glad you're my best friend."

I felt relief, not only from me, but from Dinah as well. If anything, she felt it more than I did. 'Poor Helena,' I heard in my mind. It felt as if Helena had lost her best friend, which made Dinah think heavily about our friendship, just as hearing about Dinah's flawed relationship with her mother made me appretiate my relationship with mine... that is, before I overheard about the Institute. "I'm glad you're my best friend, too. Are we okay? When you didn't call me last night, I was sure you'd never speak to me agian." We broke apart and started walking into the building. It was silent between us until we started walking down the hall.

"Yeah... We're definately okay, Gabby. I would never stop being friends with someone over some guy." I felt better now that I knew she didn't hate me. I brushed past a couple of girls who were talking about the dance.

"So did you hear what happened at the dance last night? Apperently, there was a fight or something." I never heard about that. I went home right after the dance with Matt when I couldn't find Dinah. I had just heard this from the girls I almost bumped into, and was using that as a way to start a conversation that wasn't completey about Matt.

"Oh yeah. You know, I heard a couple of the staff got a little over beveraged and, uh, went berserk or something." I felt guilt. She was lying to me. The thought of Mr. Brixton, the councelor, and Mr. Garret, the drama teacher, getting shit-faced and duking it out was funny to me, though.

"Oh god," I said with a slight laugh.

"So what happened with you and Matt last night?" I shook my head, wishing with everything that she hadn't brought it up.

"Nothing. We danced. I don't even know why he asked me."

"It's pretty obvious. He must like you."

"Okay, well, don't stress 'cause the feeling's definately not mutual. He's sweet, he's just... not my type." 'You are,' my head screamed, but I didn't move a muscle to indicate that I was thinking anything like that. It seemed as though Dinah would have believed that the sky was brick red instead of what I had just told her.

"Gabby. He's cool, sensitive, extremely easy on the eyes... He's everyone's type." It was then that the oppratunity to come out to Dinah fell at my feet, and I struggled to find a good way to tell her. I stopped walking as I thought of what to say.

"Dinah... you know when I agreed to switch lab partners?"

"Yeah."

"I didn't do it just for you." It was sort of a lie, but at the same time, I hadn't done it just so she can lust after Matt close up. I needed a good grade. Dinah seemed slightly confused, with good reason.

"Yeah, but my lab partner was that girl, Gina." I didn't say anything, but it was enough for Dinah to catch my drift after I just stared at her for a second. "Oh," she said, to my surprise, with a smile. It wasn't exactly the truth. She knew by then that I was a lesbian, but it wasn't Gina I liked. I was content to let Dinah think so, though.

"She rocks," I winked at her and walked away before she could form any sort of reaction, bad or good, and I sat next to Gina. It was a small lie, the fact that I liked her as more than friendship material, but not about the fact that she rocks.

"Hey Gabby." She must have seen my face, with some relief and some fear still upon it. "You okay?" I shook my head.

"I told her." I said, and she looked a little surprised.

"You did?" I nodded. "What'd she say?"

"Well, I told her I'm you-know-what," I explained. In whispers, I told Gina the way I'd told Dinah. "So, I hope you don't mind. I only implied that I have a crush on you, not that it could go anywhere."

"I'm honored to play your love interest, but Gabby, you've got to tell her sometime." I nodded, not saying anything more.


	8. Chapter 8: Leonard

**Chapter Eight**

**Leonard**

After that close call, life went somewhat back to normal. I pretended to admire my love interest from afar as Dinah and I became lab partners when in truth, I was closer to her than ever. I eventually told Dinah that though Gina was beautiful (and don't get me wrong, Gina was very beautiful, but Dinah just had something... more), she was straight, and nothing could happen between us. It was another lie that I felt bad about telling, but if she only knew... I'd rather love Dinah at a distance and be in agony everyday because of it than to tell her, have her react badly, lose her and be in agony, anyway. I could only hope that a) she loved me back in secret, or b) my feelings for her would fade away and I moved on.

Until then though, I had to pretend I was a normal teenage girl who definately didn't hear other people's thoughts on occasion. Normality, it seemed, got farther away from me the more I was with Dinah. Just when I thought I had gotten the hang of all the whispers and humming, I'd touch Dinah or she'd touch me, and my heart would pound and the humming turned to buzzing. I'd gotten used to the buzzing, and I'd accidentally touched her one day to get a beaker in lab class, and I started to get flashes. At least, I got some from her. I saw a balding caucasian man in about his early fifties, which I suddenly felt hatred for. Same balding man sitting on a bed and talking on a phone. Rage, fury. Fear on this man's face. Slight satisfaction. The woman known as Huntress in a previous dream. Annyoance, rage, and betrayal. A knife in the wall besides Huntress, Huntress holding her arm. Guilt. Just as quickly as we had touched, both of us snapped our arms away. I again reached for the beaker as if nothing happened.

That was the first time that had happened, if you don't count the images in those dreams. It happened once more that day, and Dinah seemed freaked out.

Did I give off some sort of signal when I received messeges from her? Did she get them? I wasn't exactly sure, but by this point, I had only one theory regarding my abilities: Maybe being near Dinah was what brought on the stress that made my new abilities show up. But then, the humming started a little while before my crush on her began. Could it be that the whole reason I befriended Dinah in the first place was to be near her, and I hadn't even realized it as the begining of my crush on her?

After school that same day, I waited at the flagpole, but Dinah didn't show up. Usually she waited with me there until Ms. Gordon took her home, so I felt weird about being there by myself. I actually felt weird about being anywhere in that school by myself anymore. I waited a good twenty minutes though, before I started walking, not in the direction of my house, but towards the subway.

I paid my fare and waited for the subway to get there and take me to the other side of the city. After about a three or four block walk from the subway, I saw the building I was looking for, the Dark Horse Bar. The lights were off, and it was dark, chairs were up on tables, stools were on the bar, and the place was extremely clean. Not at all like the rough and tumble biker bars you see on TV. Uncle Leonard was a clean freak, not to mention he loved his bar like it was his baby, so he wouldn't let it go to ruins. He'd rather die. I saw two doors on each side of the bar. The door to the right lead to an apartment that belonged to a tenant who worked at the bar to pay for rent, and the door to the door to the left lead to Uncle Leonard's place. I walked through the door to the left and up the stairs. To my right from the top of the stairs was a rust colored door, and I knocked, not sure if he'd be home. If he was, he'd be asleep until about five, when he'd start to open the bar. I hadn't called first, so he could have been off running errands for the bar.

The door opened slowly a crack, and right above the chain lock, my uncle's eyes looked suspitiously at me before he realized who I was. "Gabby?" He closed the door long enough to unlock the chain, then opened it wider for me to enter. "What are you doing here?"

"I wanted to talk to you." I said, walking over to the couch. I realized that I didn't even give him a hello hug, that I had walked right past him, and I am sure he knew something was really wrong at that action alone.

"Are you okay?" I nodded, sitting down.

"Yeah, I'm okay." I told him. "I just needed to ask you about some stuff."

I watched as my uncle went to his refridgerator and brought out a can and a bottle. Corona Light for him and Root Beer for me, as was the norm when visiting my uncle. I took the soda gratefully, and he sat next to me on the couchturning his body so that he leaned his back against the arm, and he faced me. He waited for me to continue. "I was wondering about some of the people who go to your bar. Have you ever had to break up a fight and one of them did something... unusual?" I asked. At this, my uncle's eyebrows rose.

"What kind of question is that?" he asked.

"Well, I-"

"Of COURSE they do unusual stuff. They're drunk." I shook my head and took a drink of my soda.

"No, I'm talking about... well, I heard that when Bruce Wayne left New Gotham about 3 years after the 'quake that tore apart Gotham City, the crime rate went up, and the suspects weren't the usual crooks. These were even more dangerous, the-"

"Freaks." I winced as if he's slapped me playfully on a sunburned shoulder.

"Yeah, I've heard of 'em, hell, even saw a few crazy things happen the last couple of years, but it ain't my cutomers that worry me, it's Kyle. Hot as hell, brings customers back on nights she works, but piss her off... She's good for busness, but she sometimes scares the hell out of me." Uncle Leonard stared at me. "What are you really getting at? Why the sudden interest?" From his tone, I could tell he already knew the answer to his questions, but wanted to hear it from me. I hesitated.

"Promise me it stays in this apartment, what I have to say." His eyes narrowed.

"Gabby..." Uncle Leonard's tone was mostly 'Just tell me already!' with a hint of 'Are you SURE you're okay?'.

"Please Uncle Leonard, please promise me." My uncle remained silent, and I waited. Finally he nodded.

"As long as you're not hurt or hurting someone else, I promise not to tell your mother. I'm sure it'll cause some sibling rivalry, but a promise is a promise." He then stopped talking as he continued to watch me.

"What do you know about the Institute? My parents brought me there a lot when I was ten or eleven, but stopped. They then moved me across the country, I was told, to be near you... but that was a lie."

"I honestly don't know anything more than that." Guilt. He was lying. He seemed to go pale as he saw the look on my face and knew that I didn't believe him. He glanced at the clock on his VCR, then back at me. "It's nearing five o'clock. Kyle should be here in the next half hour, so I should start opening the bar. We've got to set up some reunion party or something."

I nodded, and set my can on the counter.

"You're not going to tell my parents that I know about the Institute, right?"

"I made a promise, Gabby. They won't hear anything from me. Tell Linda I'm coming over for Thanksgiving next week, and that your grandpa'll be there too." I sighed. I hated when he spoke to me as if I was still the eleven year old that idolixed him so long ago. I still do a little bit, but when I was eleven, I thought he was about two steps down from God because he was like me. Now, I am older and though I do like spending time with him and hearing his coming out story, I don't sit lay on the floor with my legs up in the air anticipating the story of his first love, Brian, even though the story had a tragic ending. Sometimes I wonder if he expects me to beg him for the story of how he met Brian. The last couple of years he hadn't really spoken down to me like I was small again, but he did now, possibly because I shook him up about the Institute.

"Okay. Bye Uncle Leonard," I said as I walked out of the apartment. He waved, and I could still feel his guilt for lying to me. As I stood (holding on to the railing above my head) in the crowded subway, I thought about what he'd said about the unique people of this city and how I was one of them. My father too, I think. I thought about my family here in New Gotham. I felt I couldn't trust my parents anymore, and now Uncle Leonard wasn't making my new found paranoya any better. I never rode in the Sedan after that day I had the dream about my father and me going to a place I could never remeber.

Maybe it was some sort of treatment that I got after each 'test' that made me forget.

The only person I felt safe with was Dinah, and even with her secrets she knew nothing about the Institute. As much as I sometimes felt nervous around Dinah because of my feelings for her, it was always relaxing to take a ride with her. I'd forget for a little while that I'm different. We were always in a comofrtable silence except for on two occasions. One was when 'Eternal Flame' by the Bangles came on, followed 'We Belong' by Pat Benatar (Ah.

Eighties chick rock, you gotta love it), and we sang along with the music (not well, mind you). The second time was when I had asked Dinah if she would like to come over and spend the night two weeks from then, which was the week after Thanksgiving. It was the only time I could think of where we'd both be free. She said she would love to, and seemed excited about staying over. So if I could've just gotten through the next two weeks, I had something to look forward to.


	9. Chapter 9: Sorry

**Chapter Nine**

**Sorry**

Well, Happy freaking Thanksgiving to me. If I hadn't withdrawn almost completely from my parents, it would have been quite nice. My grandparents on my father's side came up from Bend, Oregon, where they'd retired, my grandfather on my mother's side (her and Uncle Leonard's father) came with Uncle Leonard, who'd gotten him from the airport. My grandma on my mother's side passed away when I was nine (though I don't remember her much), but we said a prayer for her during grace. After that, an awkward silence followed, me watching my family members one by one, and I couldn't help but wonder if the rest of them knew about the Institute. If they did, I wouldn't have known what to think or how to feel. I looked over at Uncle Leonard, who watched me. Come to think of it, they all watched me, thinking something along the lines of 'What happened to the happy sunshine girl we all know so well?'. At least, that was Grandma Andrews' thought. "Happy Sunshine Girl's gone bye-bye," I muttered.

"What was that, Gabby?" My father was staring at me as he waited for me to reply.

Thining quickly, I said, "Oh, I siad 'Hope I can save room for the pie'."

I'm such a crappy liar.

"Yes, this food is very good, Linda," my dad replied. At this, an echo of 'Very Good', and 'mmhmm', and 'you've outdone yourself' came from around the table, which started a conversation, although forced, about recipes that lasted a good half an hour. I was relieved that no one had heard what I'd truly said, or saw that I'd barely eaten much at all, let alone enough to have to remind myself to save room for pie.

A little while later, after the pumpkin pie was served and eaten, and after the table was cleared and the kitchen was cleaned using teamwork on the Andrews's side, my mother and Uncle Leonard sat at the table with a couple of cups of coffee while the rest of us sat in the living room. The TV was on the local news, and there were three women on the screen. "... if you have any information on these missing women, please call the number on the screen. As of this point in the investigation, police are unable to confirm or deniy if these disappearances are related." A couple of other things were in the news that didn't interest me, stock reports, a win for the New Gotham Knights, 'ooh, chance of rain on tuesday', but that was it. On the floor by the couch where I was sitting, I watched the news, but didn't listen to much after the weather. My eyelids drew heavy thanks to the turkey I ate.

I sit next to my wife of thirty one years as she speaks of the serman our preacher gave this morning, and how it has made her feel this week. We'd just dropped our only granddaughter, Gabrielle, back at her house. She for some reason wanted to go to church today but her parents had both come down with a cold and they couldn't take her. Being in town to care for the six year old while they were in bed, we went to the church we had attended before we moved a few cities away last year. they'd insisted that they were well enough to go back to caring for Gabby, so we were on our way back to our home further out of the city. Going to church was like bringing back some good memories, and I know Maureen thought so too. As she tells me about seeing various people and the year's worth of gossip they had to share, I listen and incert the appropriate 'hm', 'ah', and 'I see' when and wherever was needed, but then she ways something that makes me glance over at her.

"Gabby, that child. You know what she asked me after the service, Ben?" She doesn't wait for my reply, as I knew she wouldn't. "She asked me why the preacher wanted to die. I swear- I looked at her and I said, 'Sweety, he doesn't want to die', but she insisted that he does. She's going to grow up queerer than a three dollar bill, Ben- She's going to be either a man hating lesbian or a freak like her father-"

"Enough." I say loudly to her. "Now what happened last year was an accident. That little girl has already been through enough, and I doubt after Jason and Gabby goin' to that so called 'doctor', it'll get any better before it's all said and done. So you just play nice, Maureen, for the child. She doesn't remember anything, and for some reason they want to keep it that way."

"To keep her as daddy's little girl. He's only doing it so she doesn't hate him the rest of her life."

"I said 'enough'. This didn't happen."

"Must be the Andrews' family motto," she shot back. I only sigh and pray silently for Gabby's happiness-

The scene fades white, then slowly a newspaper headline screams up at me:

'Local preacher commits suicide after sevices; Community baffled'. I gasp as the scene fades white again. I am standing right in front of the closed door. I can almost see what is behind it, but the people and objects in it are all blurry, then all I see is the door itself. I reach out for the doorknob. I am shocked to find it wet, slippery. I don't get a firm grip on it. A name is called from beyond the door, a name I know, but don't. Then someone screams as a child starts to cry. As I... start to cry.

A couple of fingers gently touched my right cheek and I opened my eyes almost in panic. "Shh-shh-shh!" I saw my father's left hand then, his index and middle fingers glistening. I felt a droplet run down both sides sides of my face, and one drop went into my ear. I had dropped my head back and it rested on the cushion next to where my grandmother had sat. My mouth was open, and I hoped I hadn't drooled ot snored. I raised my head and felt a pain in my neck as the tears changed direction and ran their proper course down my cheeks. All eyes were on me, but I didn't care. I was confused by these tears as much as I almost welcomed them. It was almost as if I needed to cry as a release.

My father, who was knelt beside me, held me then in a hug. I almost recoiled at his touch, but didn't. I wanted him to protect me, but felt he couldn't. Like I knew he'd fail me if I let him try. "I'm sorry-" I started to say.

"No, I'm sorry, Gabby," he said in a way that only I could hear him, "I'm so sorry." It seemed as if that was exactly what I needed to hear, but what exactly was he sorry for? Bringing me to the Institute? I'd like an apology for that too, but it wasn't why I was crying. These were tears of grief, complete and utter loss that I had never known, not even when Grandma Cook died. Grandma Cook was right. I did grow up to be queerer than a three dollar bill. And she was right on both occasions, except for the man hating portion. I knew that my father had some idea of why I was crying... I knew that he was also truly sorry for it as well. Now, if only could figure out what it was all about.


	10. Chapter 10: Timeline

**Chapter Ten**

**Timeline**

Not long after that, the night quieted down. There was some football game that was on, and I read a book as Uncle Leonard, my father, and both grandfathers sat down to watch it. I could feel none of their minds were actually on the game, but it gave a distraction from what had happened. I could feel that my family was looking at me in the corner of their eye, trying to figure out just what had happened, only my dad seeming to really know. At eight that night, everyone said goodbye, and the house got quiet.

It seemed that though my grandparents on my father's side had agreed to stay with us over night, then fly back to Bend the next day, they decided to get a motel for the night instead, and I could feel that it was because of me.

They thought it was best that I rested and got over what happened that night, and I felt bad and stupid. "Is there something you want to talk about, Gabby?" It was my mother who spoke, her voice soft. I shook my head.

There was really nothing to say past what my father had said, and that only confused me further. I was close to asking what happened when I was five or six, but I'd only get more lies and silences, so I thought 'Why bother?'. I took my book and went into my sanctuary, my room, where I'd wanted to go since right after dinner. It would have been rude to my family, and since I didn't get to see them much after we'd lived in New Gotham, I wanted to spend as much time as I could with them, secrets or not.

I sat down at my desk and opened a writing program and began to make a list, a timeline of sorts, of when things changed for me. I theorized that everything started around the time Dinah got to New Gotham. Or at least, everything that became significant started with her around. I figured that she'd brought on a slight emotional stress when I worried about her so much, and when I felt the protectiveness come over me once we'd become friends.

The only thing was, the actual day of the beginning of the humming, I don't think I was in any emotional stress. Before Dinah'd come over, I was just bored. Same thing in the theater when the volume of the humming increased. I wasn't in any real stress, in fact what stress I was under was relieved when Dinah had agreed to the movie outing. I wasn't in any stress at all, but- But Dinah was.

I continued to type up dates and events as I remembered them, and it looked something like this:

Tuesday, October 1st, 2002- Dinah Redmond's first day of school, obtains title Zipper Girl

Wednesday, October 2nd, 2002-Introduce myself to Dinah

Sunday, October 20th, 2002- Dinah comes over, humming/whispering started, dream of Dinah's memory (?)

Monday, October 21st- Friday October 25, 2002- Dinah's gone from school, worried sick all week

Friday October 25th, 2002- Ms. Gordon tells me to stick by Dinah because she needs me, Kelly stops being my friend because of my growing friendship with Dinah, says Dinah's dangerous, sent a mental messege to Dinah for her to call me (?), she calls, and I invite her to a movie

Saturday, October 26th, 2002- Go to movies with Dinah, humming gets louder, learn about mother, hear word 'metahuman', Dad acts strange that night, tells me to go to my room, overhear about the Institute, research word 'metahuman', dream of my father's memory

Sunday, October 27th, 2002- Send mental messege to my father about genes (?), Dad sends mental messege to me as a test and I ignore it, I realize I have real telepathy, Dinah takes me for a drive, feels I needed to talk, which I did but couldn't tell her

Wednesday, November 6th, 2002- Dinah obviously has a crush on Matt Kendall, despite my jealousy, nothing triggers my powers or affects them in any way

Thursday, November 7th, 2002- Sexy Dinah walks into class, despite being struck dumb, nothing happened regarding my powers. That night, Matt Kendall asks me about static and Dinah, the same thing I felt the night the humming started, fear of Dinah's rejection of our friendship doesn't affect my powers

Friday November 8th, 2002- Dinah's not mad at me about Matt, I sense something happened between her sister and her sister's best friend, we're cool, hear 'Poor Helena'

Tuesday, November 19th, 2002- Touch Dinah on accident, saw flashes of memories and emotions. Dinah wanted to kill someone but was stopped (?), go see Uncle Leonard about the Institute, he lies to me and forces me to go home. He's heard of people with special powers, I'm not the only one (!) (Should I go talk to this Kyle chick?)

Thursday November 28th, 2002 (Thanksgiving)- Heard 'Where's our little sunshine girl gone?' dream of Grandpa Cook's memory, wake up crying, feel that my father failed me or is going to fail me, he says he's sorry as if he knew what I had a dream about.

It felt as if a lot of the confusion and stress I felt upon first getting signs of this ability went away, and writing things down seemed to make things better. Not easier, really, but better. No longer bottled up until I would burst. Mr. Zeros and Ones will hold on to my secrets. It was as if writing down the clues so far made the mystery not as hard to solve, Sure, there was a lot to it, but I'm sure it will all connect together somehow, and I felt that Dinah had played a big role in this mystery that is me, and creepier still, I felt much more has yet to some, much more that Dinah will be a part of.


	11. Chapter 11: Flirty

**Chapter Eleven**

**Flirty**

When we got back to school the following Monday, I was relieved. All weekend following the holiday, all I felt from my parents was guilt, remorse, and mournful emotions. I was glad to be in school and away from that. Dinah hadn't come by for our usual drive during the weekend through the city, so I was sort of trapped inside. I left for school over a half an hour early because I couldn't stand the silence of the house. I sat down on the bench next to the flagpole and watched as people trickled in one by one or two by two. I saw Jeremy Fox, who was in my Algebra class last year, and I watched him. His shoe was untied, and he was running towards one of his friends. Should he trip, his pride wouldn't be the only thing hurt. I'm sure I could have simply called out for him to tie his shoe, but what's the point of having special abilities if you're not going to use them?

I kept my head down, my hair falling lightly over my face, and I concentrated on Jeremy's steps. I tried to remember what I had done the night I got Dinah to call me, or at least, I think I had done that. I thought to him as I imagined his running footsteps, 'Jeremy, tie your shoe.'

The poor boy looked spooked, but he stopped running long enough to look down at his feet. He looked around, and after he thought no one was looking at him, he slowly bent to tie his shoe. My hands felt shakey then, and I was glad that I was sitting down. I wasn't sure if I could have stayed upright had I done that while standing, remembering the weak feeling I had when I had summoned Dinah's phone call. I kept my head down as I thought, then slowly brought my shaking hands under my chin. I had to admit, that was pretty cool. Though I know I've already thrown my thoughts out to two people, I thought it was amazing to do it on purpose and see the reaction once I had. I wished I had seen Dinah's face when she felt suddenly that she had to call me right away. Was she scared? For me?

A hand gripped my right shoulder and I must have jumped really high. Up the flagpole. "Hey, easy. I didn't mean to freak you out. Are you okay?" It was Dinah, of course, standing over me with a mischievious grin that said she had, in fact, intended to scare the be-jesus out of me. I nodded.

"Yeah. How was your break?" Dinah shrugged.

"It was pleasent," she said, "Well, once we turned off the smoke detectors and cleared the place of smoke. Shoulda known Helena's a disaster in the kitchen, but did we listen? No. We let her cook some dessert thing her mother used to make, and she put it on too high of a temperature to make it cook faster." I giggled. "What was left of it could be used to draw stick figures on the inside of cave walls." I couldn't help it, I laughed harder at that. Dinah seemed pleased with herself, as if making me laugh was her only goal for that day. "What about your holiday?" she asked me as she sat down on the bench next to me. I turned my head to look at her.

"Really good," I lied, my eyes flickering down, then back to her, hoping she wouldn't know that I was lying to her. "My grandparents on my father's side and my grandpa on my mother's side came up from the west coast and we had a really big feast. It was nice."

"Your grandparents are from the west coast?"

"Yeah, so am I. I lived in San Diego until I was eleven when I moved up here where my uncle Leonard owns a bar." I told her. I saw a look of recognition at the sound of my uncle's name, as if she already knew what I was talking about.

"I never would have guessed you for a California girl. We don't really talk much about our pasts," Dinah surprised me by saying. She sounded almost sad that we didn't, even though it was like an unspoken rule that we don't ask, don't tell about our pasts unless it comes up. At least, that is how I took it ever since Dinah told me about her mother. 'That is partly because I don't remember most of it.' I thought bitterly. Instead, I playfully rolled my eyes.

"I'm not a California girl. I ride subways, not waves. I'm terrified of water. Well, not baths and showers, but you get the idea. I don't think I ever even learned to swim because I was so scared." I told her.

"I'll keep that in mind if there is ever a pop quiz." She said sarcastically, and I stuck my tongue out at her. "Oooh, I'm hurt, I'm scared, I'm going to fall down dead because you, Gabby, have stuck your tongue out at me. Help me... Hellllp... meee..." Dinah made a display of melting like the Wicked Witch of the West, then stood to her full height. I grinned at her. She stared at me for a second, considering me, or just starting a staring contest that I wasn't sure I was winning or losing. I certainly liked this playfullness that Dinah seemed to add to the day. It made my weekend seem worth bearing. I wondered, though, about the change of mood. What got her so happy? What could I do to keep her mood like this?

"Are you ready to walk to class? It's kind of cold out here." I nodded and slowly stood up. The shakiness was gone and I was glad for that as I walked slowly with Dinah to her class, then went to my own as the warning bell sounded.

Later in our lab class, Dinah and I sat together, whispering and passing notes when we should have been paying attention to what was on the overhead projector. Eventually, we'd forgone the notes all together, and were sitting close enough to hear the whispering between us. I must say, I really liked the intimacy we seemed to share in that space with our heads together and talking. "So, how are things with G-I-N-A?" she asked.

"I told you, nothing's going on between us." I replied.

"Then why is she staring at you?" I looked towards the black board, and sure enough, Gina was staring at me with a smile that clearly said 'You get 'er Tiger.' She quickly looked down and wrote something on her paper. When Dinah was searching in her backpack for something, probably some paper or a pencil or something to make it look like she wasn't being bad and talking to me in class, Gina held up a piece of paper that said 'G+D=?' in big bold lettering. I shook my head and mouthed deliberately, 'Nothing'.

Unfortunately, it was true, but Gina didn't seem to believe me. She wrote furiously, then held it up quickly. 'Then why are you flirting?' I frowned, my look saying that we were not at all flirting. Gina shook her head.

"Making goo-goo eyes at each other..." Dinah whispered playfully in my ear.

I tried not to shudder at the feel of her breath on my skin.

"Just like you were making goo-goo eyes at Matt while he made goo-goo eyes at his CD player..." I whispered back. Dinah laughed silently, and hit me playfully on the shoulder. I hit her back, slightly harder.

"Ow! I barely touched you, and you just socked me in the arm!" She whispered in what I'm sure would have been a whine if she was any louder.

"You're just a wuss. The extra pain was for scaring the shit out of me earlier," I said. She brought her middle and thumb fingers together and flicked me on the thigh. I hissed and rubbed it. "What was that for?"

"Fun," she replied with a grin as I glared at her, but I couldn't help but grin back as a tought occured to me. I raised my right hand as if to flick her on her shoulder but she went to block it, and as she moved both hands upward, I flicked her with my left hand on her thigh just as hard as she had done to me. "Ow!" Dinah squeaked, making the teacher, Mrs. Dean, look up at us just in time to see me lower my hands.

"Gabby, thank you for volunteering to clean Bunson burners after school today."

"Aww, damn it." It wasn't as if I had any plans for after school except for the turkey sandwhich made not so delicately with the rest of the leftovers, and my English assignment, which was to attempt to write a sonnet (I'd already started it last period and it was almost done, so I didn't need to spend a huge amount of time on it), but cleaning Bunson burners that were overused and poorly treated didn't sound like the ending to what shaped up to be a pretty good day. I heard some of the class laugh at my small outburst, and I sighed.

"I'll see you at two forty five, Miss Andrews."

"Okay," I said in a low tone.

I walked from my last class to Dinah's last class, where I usually walked her to the flagpole, to find she had already left. I searched the school a little, from my class to hers, from her locker to mine, to Ms. Gordon's classroom to the flagpole. She wasn't at any of these places. I felt sad that I didn't get to talk to Dinah before serving detention. I walked slowly, dragging myself back to the lab classroom to serve my time. Mrs.

Dean pretty much told me what to clean with and let me have at it. At three o'clock, almost on the dot, the door opened and I looked up to see Dinah in a white t-shirt and jeans with torn and faded hems on the legs. "If I got any cleaning supplies on Helena's clothes, I wouldn't live to attend your little slumber party on Friday night." I smiled.

"You went all the way home, changed clothes and came back?" I asked.

"Well, I couldn't let you take the fall because we were horseplaying. What kind of a friend would I be?"

"I'm touched." I said softly, and I meant it.

"Yeah yeah. So what are we doing?" There was a little bit of color on Dinah's face, and I was surprised to see it. She was blushing! I pretended I didn't see the blush or feel her slight embaressment.

"Uh, cleaner good, but stay away from that cabnet with them." I replied in somewhat a caveman grunt as I pointed towards the back. "Something about kaplowie."

"No more school? No more homework? No more dealing with retards who insist on calling me Zipper Girl like it wasn't SO last month? I say kaplowie, baby!" Her enthusiasm made me smile.

"As much of a pyro as I can be at times," which was a lie, since I hated fire as much as I feared water, "I'm pretty sure that my twenty dollar a week allowance isn't enough to cover the cost of rebuilding the school, so let's keep the kaplowie to a minimum, shall we?"

"Aww..." I laughed again, and we spent the rest of that time cleaning the Bunson burners in silence.

Dinah called me later that week to inform me that she couldn't stay the night (and possibly the weekend) over that weekend. It was because she had to go to some charity event Ms. Gordon wanted her to attend. She sounded like she didn't really want to go, but in her voice it sounded like she was saying 'duty calls'. I told her that I understood, and she promised to tell me how it went. Not long after that New Gotham went insane, litterally.


	12. Chapter 12A: Madness

**Chapter Twelve (A)**

**Madness**

As promised, Dinah called and told me about the wacky outfits that some weirdo claimed was fashionable. I listened to her voice, hearing how bored she was, but I got the feeling she was feigning boredom for my benefet, as if her having fun at that charity fashion show would upset me. Sure, I was disappointed that she couldn't stay over, but I was glad that she wasn't as bored to tears as she's made herself sound. It rained on Sunday morning, and I did homework and read. Nothing interesting happened at school the next day, just homework, run a mile, homework, homework, lunch, lab, sing a little song... But when I got home and tried to concentrate on my grammar worksheet, suddenly the buzzing that I had just started to tune out got louder. Something, I knew, was wrong.

I closed my book and sat there, concentrating on the buzzing. Inside the buzzing, I heard something that had both confused me and made my blood run cold. 'Fly away...jump...jump...roof...fly away...' Those three phrases continued, in no particular order, to run through my head, and I felt a pull towards my high school. I left my room, ready with an excuse in case my parents asked me where I was going, but when I looked around, no one was home yet. It was odd, but I wasn't completely worried. Usually, my dad got home anywhere between 3:45 and 5, depended on the traffic, and my mother would be home by about 4. I looked at the clock on the stove. It was 5:15.

'Maybe they had gone out to dinner and would call me in a little bit to tell me they were bringing me a doggie bag.' I suggested to myself. They did that sometimes, and to tell the truth, a take-out box of Chinese didn't sound half bad. As I left the house, the sky was darker, almost complete night, and I walked slowly down the street, not feeling comfortable walking alone.

"YOU!" The sudden shout made me jump. I turned back towards my house and saw Kelly on the main sidewalk as if she had run out of her house just to confont me. She seemed different. Her eyes looked slightly sunken in, she was paler than I remembered, and she looked as if she hadn't eaten in a couple of days. She was looking at me with so much hatred. "I hope you rot in Hell, where your kind belong!"

"My kind?" At first, I thought she was talking about my being gay, but it didn't make any sense to me. Kelly was always cool about that. She never even acted as if I might start hitting on her as other people I know have done. There was a look in her eyes I've never seen before, a glint that made me wonder to myself if she wasn't completely there. She walked closer to me, her pace startling. Kelly pushed me, hard. I tumbled backwards and almost lost my balance.

"You're one of them, those freaks. I know, Gabby. I know what you can do, and it disgusts me." She tried to push me again, and I grabbed at her hands.

I could hear- very faintly- her thought process, and could tell that though she'd said my name, she wasn't screaming at me, per se'. I was just there, but she didn't truly see me as her ex best friend. In her mind, I was HIM, the 'man' who hurt her, abused her in a way that made me sick even then. She wriggled in my grasp and managed to get one of her wrists free. She scratched me on my inner elbow, the only thing she could get to, and it left a nasty red mark. I was getting angry then, when before I was feeling confusion and sympathy. I knew she was crazy, which was so weird because Kelly was always so much smarter than I was, and though she did get a little nervous around some strangers, she wasn't ever someone I considered a future resident at Arkham. This had to be something new, something that must have resulted because of her rape about seven months ago. I thought she was slowly but surely getting over it. Was she having some sort of relapse? Did all of her memories and emotions from that night all come suddenly, and it caused some sort of breakdown? Crazy or not, Kelly knew that I had abilities somehow. "You and your girlfriend both will burn. Burn... Burn..." She repeated this word as she continued to fight me. I let go of her other wrist and she advanced with an ear splitting scream. She ran towards me again. I moved aside a little and pushed her shoulder as she got closer, making her lose some of her momentum. She seemed to trip over her own feet and fell, scraping her hands on the sidewalk. She didn't get up. She just sat there, trying to catch her breath.

"I didn't know until a couple of weeks ago what I truly am, but if your behavior towards me means you knew before I did... What does that make you?"

She thought about what I said, and I watched her face screw into a look of sheer pain. She sniffled and tears came rapidly.

"I'm- I'm TAINTED! I'm..." She didn't finish her sentance. She wailed and reached out for me. "I... Gabby-" I just stood there watching her, unsure what to do. My heart went out to her- it really did, but I was afraid she would try to attack me again. I slowly bent to help her up. She scrambled to her feet, climbing me as she did so, and I let her lean on me. "He hurt me,"

she whimpered.

"I know. You told me." I said in a soothing voice. I saw the man's face in my head, and I had a hard time swallowing. He was a big guy, and he'd gone to our school before he was arrested. He was a senior and had asked Kelly to prom. He didn't dance with her all night, and then when he was taking her home, he suddenly forced himself upon her. He was unbelievably strong... It wasn't until I got home from school later that week and saw the cops at Kelly's house that she told me what had happened. Images came to my mind.

This guy in a letterman's jacket smiling flirtatiously at me and asking me- er, Kelly if I was still on for prom. He seemed so normal, so nice when I had met him. 'One thing you you have to learn about New Gotham, Dinah:

things aren't always as they seem.' I suddenly thought about Dinah's first night here in New Gotham. That sentance that Jerry said echoed through me.

Dinah had almost been attacked as well the first night she was here.

"He- Gabby... It hurt so bad." The tears came as quickly as before. "I hurt you be- because he hurt me. I- I-" She couldn't say anymore.

"Shh... It's okay, Kels," I said, hoping her elementary school nickname would help calm her some. We slowly started to walk towards her house. "It's just a scratch." Instantly after I said that, the image of the Huntress woman holding her arm filled my head, and I felt that guilt. I closed my eyes and the image faded away. I wondered why Dinah was on my mind now. I hoped she was okay, but I had to make sure Kelly was going to be okay first.

"Here's what we're going to do, okay?" Kelly looked up from the ground at me. "We're going to get you home, okay? Respond and tell me you understand."

I told her, speaking as if to a child, which is what I felt she reverted to in her sudden fear and anguish.

"Okay," she said meekly.

"We're going to get you home and we're going to get you into a bath, okay?"

"Okay."

"And we're going to wash you up, and get you into some pajamas, and you're going off to sleep. Does sleep sound good, Kels? Does it? Respond, Kelly." I said again when she remained quiet.

"Okay- yes. Good." She responded almost absently. It scared me. She was looking at me, but then... she wasn't really looking at me. She was almost looking THROUGH me, which was almost creepy. I continued to talk to her.

"You're going to sleep and dream of flowers. Tell me your favorite flower, Kels." Kelly looked at me as if I would supply the answer. "You're favorite flower are roses, right?" She nodded, though she seemed to have stopped listening. "Roses are the state flowers, right Kels?" Her head lulled to the side and rested on me as I was almost dragging her now. "Kelly, I need you to help me. Help me, Kelly. Hold yourself up for a little bit. We're almost home." She was so exhausted. I didn't think her small attack on me would tire her out so much, but I studied her frail form as we walked, her shoes almost dragging on the concrete. I hoisted her up when I felt her dragging more, and slipping down my body a little bit. "Kelly, pick yourself up. I can't hold you. We're almost there. You'll be in bed soon."

"Be- Bed." Kelly said with a far away voice.

"Yes Sweety, bed. Come on." That seemed to get her to move a little more on her own, and the weight was lifted from me a little bit. "That's my girl.

Come on." I urged her again. The rest of the way seemed like blocks away even though I hadn't even crossed the street to get me closer to the school when Kelly had attacked me. A van had pulled into Kelly's driveway and two white/blonde haired boys stepped out, looking our way. They looked at Kelly as if she was evil, almost the same look she had given me only minutes before. She hadn't picked her brothers up from the looks of it, and her parents had to go do it on their way home from work. Kelly's parents (her mother and stepfather) both worked in a law firm in upper Bludhaven, where they'd met, and it was almost 2 hours' drive each way. Her stepdad asked what was wrong, but Kelly clung to me suddenly and didn't say anything. I could only guess that for a second she was seeing him as the 'man' as well.

He looked to me for answers.

"She's not feeling well. I'm just going to get her to bed." I led her up the stairs to the bathroom. When I caught sight of the bathtub, I froze. I could hear the screams and the sound of five or six year old me crying. A tug on my arm made me look at Kelly.

"No bath. Just bed... please." She said this as if to give a command, then remembered her manners. I could feel that she knew I was scared, even though she didn't exactly know why, and was trying to make it a little easier on me. Plus she was really tired and would have fallen asleep in the bath tub, and there would have been no way for me to get her out of it. I wouldn't have called for her stepdad's help because of what Kelly was thinking about in her state, and we would have been stuck. I nodded, and we walked to her room, and helped her sit down on her bed. Then, I went to close the door.

Before it was latched completely, I turned to see that Kelly had already taken her shirt off.

"Oh-" I said in surprise, seeing her ribs before turning quickly to her dresser. I took out her Care Bears pajama pants and white t-shirt and put them next to her on the bed. Half naked, she took them and started to put them on. She seemed out of it, like in a trance. I helped her get under the covers and sat carefully next to her. Her head was on the pillow looking up at the ceiling; I stared at her for a second. Slowly her head rolled over to look up at me. We stared in silence, and I felt she was struggling to find her words. Any words that would make sense to me.

"Thank... Thank you."

"Hey, what are friends for?" I asked, and she looked away from me after that. Tears were back in her eyes. She was sad and sorry about what had happened between us, not only outside just then, but in our friendship in general, but she couldn't find the words to say anything.

Finally, she said, "I'm sorry-" but I cut her off.

"Hey, hey, hey. Shh... It's okay. It'll be okay. We'll talk in the morning,

or- or after school. We'll talk and we'll figure it out."

"Okay." I spoke to her after that, just talking, telling her jokes, asking if she remembered this or that, images of our childhood together as paired tetherball champions in elementary school, and the 3 hours that we had become a singing duo called the Tetherball Twins (her idea, not mine). She drifted off to sleep, and finally the fear and sadness left her face. I waited until I felt that she was calm before I slowly tucked her in as to not disturb her. I left her room, turning out the lights and slowly closing the door with a soft thud. At the bottom of the steps, I looked at her parents.

"She's okay now. She just... needs to sleep," I told them. They nodded, confused.

"Do you know what happened?" her mother asked.

"No, I don't, but she'll be okay." 'I hope.' I hadn't the heart to bring back the memories of the police being at the house for a couple of hours that one night as they learned that one of the worst things ever to happen to their child took place. I didn't want to tell them that she might have broke down due to thoughts of that night he'd raped her. It was silent there, as I could tell those thoughts came to them anyway. I had to get out of there. I felt bad for wanting to leave them with a problem like that, especially when it involved one of my best friends. "Look, I've got to go, but Kels is asleep. I'll talk to you all later." I felt bad that they wouldn't get any real explaination from me about what happened. I, better than anyone, knew how it felt to be left in the dark, but I, myself didn't know exactly what happened. All I had were guesses and theories.

"Well, thank you for getting her into bed. You're a good friend." She said.

I smiled and tried not to wince at that. After she had said that they showed me out, and I felt the fresh air on my lungs and almost felt relief. Things were okay.


	13. Chapter 12B: Flying

**Chapter Twelve (B)**

**Flying**

As soon as I made my way to the main portion of the sidewalk, I remembered why I'd left my house to begin with as I heard 'Roof.. fly away... fly away... jump... fly... roof... roof... roof...' I ran to the school this time. The closer I got, the louder this chanting seemed to get. I felt tired after only two blocks, but I kept running. Someone's thinking about jumping from the roof of the high school from what I could tell, but I had to make sure. I saw a figure moving around on the roof of the high school, and I tried to speed up my running. On the ground, a man was running, screaming things like, "Go away! I haven't even seen Forrest Gump!"

Another man chased after the first, yelling, "But Tom, I love you! You're my idol! Tom, come back!" When he saw me, however, he screamed, "Oh my god, Madonna, I'm your biggest fan! My favorite song is 'Like A Prayer'! You're my idol!" I stopped running from him when he gained on me. He, too, stopped running and stood in front of me. "Man, you sing great AND you run fast! Can I have your autograph?" I sighed, looking around.

"Sure, you can- Oh my god, is that David Spade?" The man looked in the direction I had suddenly pointed and he started running that way, as I'd hoped he would.

"Oh my god, David Spade! I haven't seen anything you've been in, but I'm your biggest fan! You're my idol, man!" The poor guy was chasing a car, and would never catch up to it until it stopped. The weird thing was, he didn't seem to get tired from chasing his 'celebrities'. He wasn't gasping for breath as I was, and he didn't break into any sort fo sweat. It made me wonder if he had abilities as well. I hurried on towards the school, where I saw people breaking windows on cars, wandering around confused, one woman screamed for her baby, and everyone acting bizarre. No one else approached me as I got to the school building, thankfully. There was so much noise. The doors were locked on the school, but every window was completely broken, leaving very small jagged edges on the sides. 'Roof... fly-roof...fly...

jump-jump-jump-fly...' Those thoughts brought me into action. I crawled through a broken window, feeling shards and jagged edges against my legs and arms. As far as I could tell, there was nothing deeper than the scratch Kelly had given me earlier. I ran through the halls. It was a mess inside.

Papers were everywhere; signs and posters were ripped from the walls and scattered carelessly on the floor near where they once hung. Lockers were dented in and/or had words of jibberish spraypainted on them. Windows on the classroom doors had spiderweb shaped cracks, but they weren't completely broken like the windows on the outside of the school. Inside classrooms, chairs and desks were strewn everywhere, most bent and broken. More words of jibberish were written on the black and white boards, and in my lab class, I was shocked to see Bunson burners I'd cleaned only days ago (with Dinah by my side) useless due to the now cut cords.

I ran past it and across the career counsilor Mrs. North, and found she was the culprit breaking the glass. Well, not all of it. She had help from our school mascot, that is, someone in a suit of armor holding a baseball bat made of metal. "Gabby! Help me break all of the windows! The devil can't enter this world if all the glass is broken!" The suit of armor started to scream incoherant thoughts while he waved his baseball bat, not caring about what he hit, as long as he hit SOMETHING. I stayed out of his arm's reach.

"I'd start a revolution if I could get up in the morning!" He suddenly screamed. It was the only thing I heard him say that made a lick of sense. I frowned in thought, thinking, 'That would make a really awesome rock song.'

I started to walk away and Mrs. North grabbed my arm, looking at me as if I was betraying her.

"I'm pretty sure there are a couple of windows up on the roof. I am going to go look for them." I told her quickly, shrugging off her hand. Mrs North gasped in realization.

"Oh my goodness! Good thinking, Gabby! I never thought of that. Anything can be a portal to our realm. There," She pointed suddenly behind me, and I turned to see a door that said 'Do not enter. Alarm will sound', and I walked to it. I opened the door despite the sign, and sure enough there was a loud buzzing not unlike that of the fire alarm when we had a fire drill.

"FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRE!" I heard someone, most likely the suit or armor, scream, but the door closed behind me and the sounds of running and screaming muffled. I raced up the stairs and opened the door that was at the top. 'Fly-fly- fly- fly- fly- fly- awaaaaaay...' I saw a girl standing on the ledge looking down. She was shifting from foot to foot.

"Come out. Please. Come out. Come out." I recognized the voice instantly.

"G-Gina?" The girl turned around slowly.

"Nooo," she said playfully. "My name's Margaret Gina Halliwell, but you're close!" Then her eyes widened. "Hey, I know you! You're... that girl... I know?" She ended her sentance sounding confused, as if she really didn't know me.

"Yes, I am that girl you know. Gabrielle Madison Andrews. People call me Gabby." I told her, stepping closer to her. She watched me with a big smile.

"Yes-yes!" she said excitedly. "Gabrielle Madison Andrews. Beautiful name.

I know you well." I could tell that she didn't really, but wanted to be nice. I stopped walking towards her when she leaned over the edge and looked down, bouncing as if to get rid of the cold. It felt as if the air was really chilly, and I wondered why she was in shorts and a hoody. Had she come from track practice? Was she even in track?

"So Margaret," It felt odd calling her that after being used to calling her Gina, " What are you doing up here?" Gina's smile faded completely.

"Gabby, I am trying to get home. My sisters need me. My wings won't come out!" Gina was frusterated. "Something's wrong."

"How do you know that your sisters are in trouble?" Gina watched me for a second, then started to sort of chant.

"Shadows within show your side,

If there's something you must hide.

I do not wish, but fear I must,

Find if this girl is one to trust."

Her eyes closed and she moved her hands towards me. 'Oh no' I thought, 'She thinks she is a Charmed One.' I'd seen so far that night that playing a long seemed to keep people at least harmless, so I pretended that all of what she had just done was real. I nodded. "Wow... Powerful." I said in amazement, hoping it didn't sound sarcastic. She smirked as if to say 'I know.' She stared for a second, then nodded at me.

"When people started to act strange about a couple of hours ago, I tried to call my sisters. Maybe a demon or warlock was behind this."

"That sounds... logical, actually." I said, more to myself than to her. It was better than any explaination I could come up with.

"No one answered the phone, so I got worried. All three of them have cell phones. I called each one, the house phone, P3... nothing. No one answered, and once I got this messege saying the number doesn't exsist. I knew something was wrong then. They must be affected by this demon, so I tried to scry for them. I got nothing. Maybe I'm too far away or maybe-" She didn't finish what she was going to say, and I could feel that the thought of losing her 'sisters' really hurt her. I felt fear and anger at herself. To her, it was real. So real that I couldn't help but feel bad for her. I decided against asking about the Power of Three or even why none of her names started with a P, as were the rules of the show. I was curious about one thing, though.

"I didn't know that the Charmed Ones could fly," I said. Gina shook her head.

"My sisters can't, Gabby, but I can. I am not sure why, exactly. I have wings that are inside the skin on my shoulders, and they carry me just like a bird's, but they just won't- COME OUT!" She screamed the last part, making me jump.

"Easy! Hey... don't force them. I have a feeling it will hurt like hell if you did that." I said, still playing along. I was getting worried at how close she was to the edge, and I didn't want her to fall. "Come closer to me. We'll do an excersise to try and get your wings out." Gina's look was suspitious. "Your spell proved me trustworthy, and you already told me something that if I weren't, I could tell whoever I am working for, which I am not. I'm just a mortal girl. Come on, I don't bite." She watched me closely as she walked away from the edge. As she got closer to me, I said, "Now, in any book or movie where someone's got special abilities of some sort, their mentors have them meditate- or something like that- to get them in touch with their powers. Pretend I'm your Yoda, and we'll see if that works. Close your eyes." She doesn't. "Look, the more you doubt me, the longer it will take for you to get to your sisters. They need you, like you said, but if you waste what precious time you've got to save them, then consider them dead," I told her. She had this look of horror on her face as if she never expected the harsh words to come from me. I didn't even expect to put it that way, but it got her to close her eyes. From there, I just pretended I knew what I was doing, when all I was really doing was just keeping her with me, that way I knew she couldn't jump, and she would at least be safe. "You said they are on your shoulders?"

"Yes, my shoulder blades." I nodded. I put my hand flat on her shoulder blades, fingers spread apart. I saw that there were two large slits on her back, as if they'd been cut, but it seemed too neat to have been done by Gina's hand.

"Okay. Eyes closed?" She nodded. "Good. Do you feel my hands?" Another nod.

"Okay, concentrate on the feel of my hands." I tried to imagine what it would be like to have wings that were inside the skin like Gina claimed. "Do you feel your wings inside you?"

"All the time."

"Okay... okay." I said as my mind blanked. "Okay, concentrate on your wings. Feel them move slowly... slowly move..." I said. "Now, breathe, and relax everything. Imagine your wing tips reaching upwards towards my hand...

Can you-"

"Gabby, move!" Gina shoved me to the side just as two large beautiful black wings protruded from the shoulder blades through the slits on her jacket.

"Oh my god, it worked! Thanks for your help, Gabby." She ran, and I couldn't stop her movement; it was so quick. She jumped from the roof, and I took a few steps toward the ledge with her name on my lips before she appeared before me, her wings flapping and lifting her higher until we were at eye level, her in the air and me on the rooftop. "I'll tell my whitelighter- who is also soon to be my brother in law- to speak to The Powers That Be on your behalf. May they shine brightly upon you for helping me save my sisters, Gabrielle Madison Andrews." It was then that I snapped my mouth shut. With Gina in the air, there was no way I could stop her from going to San Fransisco, and part of me was tempted to ask her for a ride to San Diego since she was on her way to the West coast. At least then I might have a better chance of finding the Institute. All I could do was give her a warning.

"Gina-"

"Margaret."

"Margaret, be careful where you fly. People- warlocks will see you and know who you are. Maybe a... a flying Charmed One is the secret weapon your sisters need." Gina thought about this. "At least change into some dark clothing and fly high above the buildings so no one can easily see you."

Gina nodded, and I could only watch as she flew away like she had wanted to all night.


	14. Chapter 13: Open

**Chapter Thirteen**

**Open**

*This chapter brings the story's rating up to PG-13 all because Gabby's got a potty mouth. Bad Gabby.*

Okay, so Gina having wings? Way cool. I stood on the rooftop wondering if I should have said or done something differently. By telling her to fly high above buildings, was I only encouraging her to fly to San Fransisco, where the show 'Charmed' took place? If I hadn't pretended to believe her, would she have attepted to jump as a defence mechanism, hoping her wings would come out in mid-fall? Where would she be in an hour? Two? Would she still be in the state? How fast can she fly? I walked back down the stairs when I felt some snow fall on my cheeks, and I found I wasn't dressed for the occasion. It was quiet in the school now. No one screamed or ran or sang or destroyed things. No one was in the building at all except for me. It was dark and creepy. I almost felt better when people were running amuck and calling me Madonna. I walked home at a quick pace to find the house exactly as I had left it. My notebook was open, my worksheet, unfinished, lay there unmoved on top of my English book.

I walked into the living room and turned on the news. The clock on the wall read twelve minutes to eight. I couldn't have been gone that long, could I? Did it take that long to put Kelly to bed? Did it really take forever to ditch 'celebrity guy' and Mrs. North long enough to try to convince Gina not to jump (which hadn't worked)? Nothing was on TV but a pair of black eyes with golden, unaturally moving swirls. The owner of the eyes spoke, but it was muffled. I turned off the TV."What a crazy day- uh, no pun intended. Where are my parents?" I checked the phone to see if they had tried to call the house, but all I got only a messege from Uncle Leonard who spoke of pixies being after him because he owed them money... or something like that. Then I made a sandwhich in silence. I didn't like being alone in the house. I wasn't used to it. I'm pretty sure my parents stayed with me at home in case I had some sort of relapse and somehow got my memories back, but as far as I know, I never did. The only thing I could think to do as the night replayed in my head was to turn on the proch light in case my parents did get home safely, go to my room, and I began to type.

Monday, November 30, 2002- The whole city went insane. Kelly knows about my abilities, might have that ability to seek out others like us, like me. Heard someone thinking about jumping from the roof. It was Gina. Thought she was a Charmed One out to save her sisters. Has real wings (!) and is also one with abilities.

After I typed that, I sat on my bed and thought about that night, worrying about my parents. Had they also been effected by the craziness? Like Uncle Leonard had? Why wasn't I? I just sat there, back against the wall, watching the minutes on my Betty Boop clock tick away. It was too quiet, but having any music would have distracted me from the clues I had just gotten for this mystery... or maybe these were clues to a whole new mystery- a mini mystery, well, not so mini, if you ask me- that also needed to be solved. Though I watched the clock for what felt like hours, I don't know if I actually saw it most of that time. I sat, I stood, I paced, I lie down, I tossed, I turned... My mind seemed to do the same. 'Mom, Dad, whewre ARE you?' I thought. Finally, I took a lesbian romance novel off of my shelf and began to read. No, not read, stare at the words and watch as they blurred together. '...' I needed something to keep my mind off of things. It didn't quite work, but I was soon lulled to sleep once I finally could get a handle on the summer day described in the book.

I stand before the door, and I am angry. I grab the doorknob. It is locked, like I knew it would be. My anger becomes almost wild as I turn the knob both ways to force it open. Then I pound on the door, screaming "Let me in! Tell me what you know! Let me in!" From behind the door, the voices are loud, yet I still only understand,

'No yet, Gabby... Not yet...'

"Why not now? Let me in! Give me back my memories! Tell me what you know! Tell me why he's sorry! God DAMN it, let me in!" My rage scares me, but I need to open this door.

'Not yet, Gabby, not-'

An urgent knocking scared me out of my sleep, and I was grateful. I could feel my rage still, and just like in my dream, it scared the hell out of me. 'Have I ever been that pissed off?' I wonder to myself. 'Not in my recent memories, the ones I still have.' I thought, answering my own question as I walked through the house towards the front door. The clock on the stove, the only light in the house then, said it was almost fifteen minutes to five a.m. As the rage slowly died down, I stood hesitantly at the front door. I was afraid to open it. It could easily be Uncle Leonard, but because of the fact that he hadn't just opened the door and let himself in, it could have been the police coming to tell me that the craziness had affected them in some way and they were either in jail or dead. I turned on a light and looked through the peep hole. It was Dinah. She had been crying, and even before I opened the door I felt the static, just like the first time I heard the humming, only it was all very strong, and the buzzing again got louder in my head. I closed my eyes trying to get used to the feeling. When I saw her face, she looked as if she had just wiped away a fresh batch of tears.

"Dinah." I said, surprised she was there so early in the morning, but glad she was okay. She wore a leather jacket that I had never seen on her before, and there was a cut on her hand not unlike the ones I got from the glass in the school. There was a red mark on her eye, and it looked almost like she'd gotten hit in the face a couple of times. There were tiny glass shards in her hair and some on her shoulders that looked almost like diamonds in the porch light. There was a little bit of blood on the shirt inside her jacket, but I couldn't see its source and hoped that it wasn't hers. I also noticed a tiny rip on the right knee of her pants. She looked like she was in quite the scuffle.

"I'm sorry to wake you-"

"No-no, it's okay. The whole city went fuckin' mad, and I've been here most of the night scared. Are you okay? You look like you just got out of a fight." I asked as I let her inside. She didn't answer me for a long time. She was in deep thought, and I could tell she was thinking about Ms. Gordon, and she felt bad for her. She almost pitied her, knowing that Ms. Gordon wouldn't want that pity. "Dinah?" She looked up at me from her gaze on the floor. She swallowed many times, trying to get the right words.

"Yes," she whispered, her voice slightly louder with each word that followed, "it has been... a- a crazy night. Gabby, I can't stay long. I have to get back to the Cl-" She stopped. "The clan. My family. I have to help clean up." I nodded in understanding, and was about to ask if she would like me to help so I could get something to do, but she continued to speak.

"I..." she couldn't seem to look at me, almost as if she didn't have the strength needed. "I just came to see if you were okay, and- and to..." I felt dread. Whatever it was she was going to say to me, it wasn't something she wanted to say. I had an inkling I already knew. "To tell you that-" She looked up at me suddenly, and her eyes glittered with tears yet to be shed.

"Gabby, we can't be friends anymore." Though a split second before that moment I knew what she had to say, I hadn't expected my head and my heart to start pounding painfully at different rhythems. I put my left knuckle to my pounding forhead, and made my elbow squeeze against my chest as a way to try in vane to ease both pains.

"Can..." I couldn't think of what to say. "Why?" I asked in what sounded like a kitten's mew. I walked slowly to the dining room table and sat down in a chair, resuming that position. Dinah knelt on the floor by the chair and looked up at me. I felt a growing sense of grief from the both of us.

"I want you to know... that everything but the way I will always charish the friendship you've shown me the last two months was a lie." I looked down at her from the side of my fist. I was confused by this statement, even though I could feel it was the truth. "There's so much you don't know about me, Gabby. So much has happened- will continue to happen that I cannot tell you about. My life and my mind is so messed up that I'd only continue to hurt and disappoint you. I would rather do it just once, then you can move on and be with friends that can be honest with you, than to reel you into a vicious cycle." I couldn't move or speak, trying my hardest to understand what she was trying to say to me, what she was really meaning by her explaination. She used my knee to help her up, and then she hugged me, her head going over my right shoulder, and both of our right cheeks touched. My fist was about an inch from my face then. "I know you, Gabby," she murmured in my ear, "I know you'll understand and forgive me." Dinah then moved away a little, placed a lingering kiss on my forehead, and stood up completely.

"Someday." She watched me, our eyes meeting, and we stared at each other. Then she walked away from me and let herself out.

For a long time I sat there unable to do anything but hold my head, thinking about everything that had happened. I felt more alone and confused than ever. Everything replayed, and then my mind got to the part that had just happened, I felt tears run down my cheeks. I put my head down on the table and I began to sob, which only made my head and my heart hurt worse.

She stands at the end of the hallway. My heart continues to pound. My head feels numb. She motions for me to go to her. I'm afraid of her leaving me again, so I stand where I am, not moving. She turns and touches the door. My door. I can hear the voices now, even down the hallway, and they are so clear. 'Now Gabby.' At this, I run. "NOW?" I only take one step, and I am there in front of the door. In front of her. She looks at me with sad eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Gabby," I don't know what to say to her, so I say nothing to that, and turn towards the door. I try the knob, but as always, it is locked. I pound on it only once.

"Stop lying to me!" I scream, feeling that rage come back, "For once in my life, stop lying to me!" A hand is on my shoulder. She looks into my eyes, saying nothing at first.

"I'm so sorry, Gabby." She removes her hand from my shoulder and touches the door again. Then her hand, arm and shoulder all disappear through it, then everything else save her other arm up to her elbow. She motions again for me to follow. I try to grab her hand, but it isn't solid. The door, however, is. I watch as my hand goes through hers, and scrapes against the door. I hear a clicking sound, and I look to see the handle rattling rapidly, the it suddenly stops. Nothing. All is still for a moment, and I am scared to move.

"NOW GABBY!" It is so loud, it scares me and excites me at the same time. I slowly reach for the doorknob again and turn it. It's unlocked! Quickly, I push it open and see all white. Bright white. I have to shield my eyes from it. Suddenly, I hear a scream. "!"


	15. Chapter 14: Cleaning

**Chapter Fourteen**

**Cleaning**

*Okay, from this point on, I am going to stray a little bit from canon. I didn't want to, but the story wouldn't have progressed as well if the whole city just went back to normal and was peachy keen, nor would it have been a believable story if it had, so in memory of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in which I dedicate this chapter to all the victims and survivors, I hope you like the chapter. ~Erin*

My mouth and throat were dry, my head and heart still ached (but the pain wasn't quite as explosive anymore), and it was quiet when I woke up. Too quiet. There was no ticking of the clock, no sound of movement inside the house or on the sidewalk, and most importantly, no humming, buzzing, whispers or murmurs. After learning about the Institute, it was almost a companion when I wasn't around Dinah, and now that Dinah's gone from my life and my parents were missing, it would've been nice to hear a little humming. It was the classic case of not knowing what you had until it was gone.

I lifted my head and slowly stretched. My neck was stiff, and my hands had fallen asleep. I cracked my neck, and though I winced at the sound, it made my neck feel better. I rested my hands limply on the table and looked at the clock while I waited for the 'pins and needles' feeling to go away. Eleven twenty-four. I stood up, feeling my back crack a little as well. I walked to my room, passing my parents' door and I quickly looked away. I grabbed my blanket from my bed, not caring about the book that fell to the floor. Wrapping the blanket around my shoulders, I went back into the living room. I sat on the couch with my upper body draped over the arm, my feet tucked under me, and I reached for the remote, unsure if I really wanted to know what had happened the night before, or anyone's guess on the matter. Sighing, I pressed the red power button."... says that about sixty-two percent of New Gotham's population was affected by some strange force that caused them to go wild through-out the city. Kevin Trowbridge is with us now on location at Wayne Enterprises' Coorprate Building, Kevin?"

"Yes, I am here in Upper New Gotham where footage was taken of an unknown man who attempted to break into the building." A black and white image of a small young man, maybe twenty-five at the oldest, came on the screen. He was banging on the door, and the camera shook. "No one knows what caused this phenomenon, or why, but the effects of this will have a lasting one on the city. Joan?"

"Thank you Kevin..." I watched as the news went on and on like that for over an hour. Images of missing children, pets, parents and friends flooded the left side of the screen while on the right half, images of all the damage in various neighborhoods. Police, firefighters, EMT, and the media we having a field day. Each minute something was lost, found, just barely survived, everyone's confused and only thirty something percent of the population remembered anything. Those that weren't effected were baffled as to why we weren't. Like me, they watched the madness, and most fled their homes when it got close to them. I was lucky that no one, as insane as they were, had hurt me. They were scarey as hell, but harmless.

Others weren't so lucky. Almost two hundred people so far were found dead, either in their homes, in the homes of strangers, in their cars, or even in the middle of the street. Many seemed to easy to explain, (some ran into the street, and an old couple died in their sleep because of a gas leak), but others were murders with no motives. It was hard to see a lot of what was shown on the screen. Children so much younger than me searching helplessly for their mothers, and instead of offering a hand, the people just stood there filming the whole thing. These children didn't know how to go about finding their parents, when I at least had a cell phone. New Gotham's already high homeless rate grew ten fold in the course of twenty four hours. I could hardly stand to watch anymore, but I made myself. I felt I had to. Something told me that there was a clue somewhere in the news segments.

Through all the death and destruction, there was some good news. By about twelve thirty, the news reports said that groups ranging from five to fifty were being organized that very moment to clean up, mostly in the downtown areas where most of the damage was. There was a speech of sorts made by one of the buisness owners who was donating items from his slightly damaged store, stating that if the city worked together and used teamwork like they had when there was that big earthquake, the it could be rebuilt. 'New Gotham has risen from the ashes before' he'd said, 'and it can easily do so again.'

Inspired by that, people seemed to call in left and right, donating everything from a hundred dollars to blankets to spare anything. Even homes were donated, allowing some of the now homeless people to bunk up until things settle down. Vans were loaded up with brooms, garbage bins and trash bags, ready to go to each of the larger organized cleaning groups. School buses rounded up those who were homeless and brought them to an abandoned building downtown that had once been a school. A thrift store donated clothes and other items. It gave me hope. Humanity wasn't completely out to destroy itself. Most of us just wanted to live a happy normal exsistance. What I saw on the screen not only made my pain seem like a childish tantrum, but it also made me hopeful that if a city in despair can just pick itself up and attempt to run again, then surely I can do the same with my life. It made me want to do something, anything to help in some way.

When I saw that a cleaning crew had been organized at my high school, I got off of the couch and turned the TV off. I went to my room and spread the blanket over my bed, then changed my mind and took it off again. I folded the blanket and set it on the floor. I went to my dresser and rifled through my clothes. I was amazed at how many shirts and pants I still had even from when I lived in San Diego. I never wore them unless it was laundry day, and it was only taking up space. Those went on top of the blanket, folded. I got out a change of clothes and went to the bathroom. Though the water stung as it flowed down my body, I felt as if some of the hot water was washing away some of the night before, the pain and the confusion. I changed into a white T-shirt that said San Diego on it, and jeans, then went to my room to grab the clothes and blanket. I put my hair back in a pink bandana I found in my dresser right before my shower, and I felt I was ready to go.

I left the house (after calling my parents and getting nothing, then leaving them a note to call me in case they got home before I did) with our box of trash bags, our broom and dust pan, and bag of donated items. I don't know why, but doing this made me feel better. It gave me something to do so that I didn't think about Dinah or the fact that my parents hadn't called. Nor did Uncle Leonard. I called his house, but got nothing. It was disconnected or no longer in service, the female operator voice had said, which made me wonder if he unplugged it during his fight with the pixies.

I hadn't walked more than a block, around the area where Kelly and I had our scuffle the night before, when I could hear the people talking and wondering what was going on. As I waited for the white pedestrian symbol, I felt a lot of grief, sadness, anger, confusion, guilt, and a little bit of hope from across the street. I reeled from it a lttle bit. This was new and continuous, when before it would just linger for a moment, then fade. 'Hey, there's Gabby. I'm glad she's okay.' I turned to see Matt Kendall on the other side of the street. He was watching me from his spot on the outside of the crowd.

'What's going to happen next?' I heard someone else think. I've never heard thoughts from this far before. I saw the crosswalk symbol change, and I walked closer. Images and thoughts filled my head, and I shut my eyes to try to single some of them out.

'...gone... It's all gone-' A flash of a car wreck seen the night before- A memory of a kitten for someone's birthday played like a black and white movie. Whoever the memory belonged to, their motto must have been think happy thoughts, or maybe this was just their way of coping-

'Gabby looks so much different with her hair up like that. I like it.' I was not sure who that was from, but I smiled. A picture of a little girl, no older than nine years old with long black hair and dark hazel, almost brown eyes cut through my smile. The grief I felt was so powerful, and somehow farmiliar to me.

'Who was he? I never spoke to him, and now he's dead? That sucks. He looked like such a happy guy...'

'...hope she's okay. Please be okay...'

I carefully walked through the crowd as they seemed to wait for something. A speech of some sort to be given by one fo the faculty. There was a table set up near the flagpole, and I walked up to it, hoping it was a spot to donate things. I was right, and I set my bag down. The girls running the table were juniors. I knew them to be on the softball team last year, but I didn't ever talk to them, though I saw them around all the time. I think one of them even lived a block or two away from me. One of the girls smiled sadly and said their thanks, and I nodded my head. I stood and looked around, listening to thoughts of concern and fear, trying to block out the pictures and scenes in my head. Eventually, someone stood on the donation table, and I was surprised that it held his weight. He called out to us in the crowd.

"I would like to thank you all for coming out this afternoon. Your support is appretiated and very much needed. Many of you- the students- know me as Mr. Nye, 'not to be confused with the Science Guy'. Before we begin splitting up into groups and cleaning, I would like to have a moment of silence for the so far nineteen students and four staff who have unfortunately passed on last night." 'Nineteen students and four staff? That many?' I thought alarmed, and that was only in the high school. 'Who knew how many children died last night.' I tried to push away the hazel-eyed girl from my head. I heard similar thoughts around me. I hung my head in silence. I heard prayers as Mr. Nye named off the nineteen students. Some of them I knew, and I was shocked to hear they were gone, but I think it was the mention of one faculty member that made my tears come: Mr. Wade Brixton.

Mr. Brixton was found dead that morning next to a Dumpster with one stab wound in his stomach. He, I knew, would be missed by the entire school. He was the type of staff member who everyone knew because he did his best to get to know you. He'd be heard in the halls asking some chick about her new puppy, or a freshman about his classes. I talked to him once or twice, and about a week or two after I met Dinah, he stopped me in the halls and asked me if I heard about the DVD set of Xena coming out soon. I told him I didn't, and he admitted to thinking about me when he had saw it in a magazine. It was impressive that he knew that little about me and still thought of me when the small subject came up. In a place filled with uncertainty like a high school, you needed to know someone gave a damn about you there. That someone was Mr. Brixton. How can someone that cool be dead so young?

After the silence was broken, people were put into groups of ten. I was assigned the sidewalks, since I'd brought my own broom, and I began to sweep the glass near the entrance where I had climbed through the windows the night before. 'Sweep the sidewalk, forget the craziness. Sweep the sidewalk, forget the craziness...' I thought over and over again, but the thoughts, though not so many at once, still came to my head.

I concentrated on the sidewalk and the slowly building pile of glass until I heard, 'I killed him. I killed Wade. I caused all of this damage.' The guilt and grief was so strong with those odd words that I had to look up and search for the source of the thoughts. I just had to. Immediately, I saw Ms. Gordon, Dinah, and the woman known as Huntress in my dream- well, Dinah's memory. I took a step back on instinct as they approached me. All of them were thinking about the night before. None of them were effected by the craziness except for the Huntress woman- the infamous Helena that Dinah spoke about, and as I saw images of my uncle's bar, I knew that she was also 'Kyle', the tenant that lived there. Dinah looked as though she couldn't speak. Not just because of the awkwardness of the night before, but because of the sight she saw before her (sweeping the sidewalk with sad eyes and her hair pulled back, though some of my strands of hair had fallen from the bandana) was so different from the laid back girl with curly blonde hair hugging her shoulders and a friendly, happy shimmer in her eyes. It was as if she, too, had asked, 'Where has our Sunshine Girl gone?' And then there was Ms. Gordon, who's mind seemed to be moving at light-years per second. The whole night replayed in her head like a black and white movie of the forties with the special effects you'd see twenty years from now.

"Oh my god," I said, unable to help it. "It was you- all of you-" I turned to Dinah, "My god, it all makes a lot of sense now..."

"Gabby, what are you talking about, sweetheart?" Barbara asked me. I felt a slight panic from her. She already suspected that I knew something that I shouldn't know. She wasn't sure what exactly, but it scared her. I looked around, then when I saw no one was near, I looked back at them.

"You're the reason all of this happened, and why it didn't get any worse than it already is. You're the reason why Wade Bixrton is dead." All three of the women before me looked startled. It felt as if there was a big chill down all of their spines, and mine was well.

"No I-" Helena started to say, but Ms. Gordon held out her hand and stopped her.

"It was all an accident, Helena. No one blames you," she said. She was lying, Helena and I both knew that. Though Helena was under hypnosis when she ratted out the location of the blueprints of their lair, the Clocktower, I felt a small sense of an accusation and betrayal from my teacher that she would quickly shut away. Still, it was there, if only briefly. Ms. Gordon looked at me and nodded. It was an aplogetic nod that said she knew somewhat what I was thinking and she was trying to work through it.

"I know it was an accident," I said, looking down.

"How... do you know? Any of that?" It was, to my surprise, Helena who asked me that. I was so sure it would be Ms. Gordon who would ask me, or even Dinah. I looked over at Dinah as I thought about whether or not I should tell them. We had more in common than I ever knew, her being a touch telepath, telekinetic, and somewhat a psychic with her dreams, but at this point, my secret was so closely guarded, mostly from my parents, that I was too afraid to tell her.

I turn my gaze to Ms. Gordon, and remembering what she had said to me when I was worried about Dinah when, as I just found out, her mother had died, I said to her, "It's... a long and complicated story." 'One I don't know all the chapters to.' I thought before looking at the ground and resuming my sweeping.


	16. Chapter 15: Meta

**Chapter Fifteen**

**Meta**

Two and a half hours later, I was sitting on the bench next to the school's flagpole as they brought down the old flag, which was ripped to shreds the night before. We had put up a new one as a way to symbolize the strength of the city. It pretty much was a way of saying 'you can try to knock us down, but we will always get up again and fight.' It was a messege to that Harley Quinn lady, though I am sure I was the only person there who knew that. I wondered if the city would be so optimistic if they didn't have the nightly shadows that save them from more despair. Ms. Gordon and her two 'daughters'

had left to go help clean up in other areas on the city, but not before telling me not to run off after this get together was over. I was tempted to ask her where she thought I'd run off to other than my house, but I said nothing, nor did I move other than to sweep the sidewalk as if she hadn't said anything.

I didn't know what would happen next. Other than being curious and scared about what I knew, none of them spoke to me after that. Dinah wanted to.

Boy, did she want to, but she felt that nothing she said to me would help the situation right then, not with her family there, and I felt the same. I thought about the many things I saw in Ms. Gordon, Helena, and Dinah's minds. There was so much grief and guilt that it was hard to think of anything else. Ms. Gordon thought the most, and scenes and images had flooded my head when I was near her. It was hard to believe she was a school teacher by day, and a crime stopping vigilante by night. Helena and Dinah too, but they don't wear masks like Barbara did as Batgirl. It was through her thoughts I learned the most. I knew the truth about how she'd come to care for both Helena and Dinah, and how she'd gotten into her wheelchair. I knew the truth about both Helena and Dinah's mothers, the missing peices that Dinah couldn't tell me. I knew, if only a little bit, about Batman, the three Robins, Batgirl, Black Canary (Dinah's mother), Catwoman (Helena's mother), Joker, and Harley Quinn. I knew all of this simply because Barbara thinks too much. I watched and listened as people started to leave. I helped load the van with cleaning supplies and donated items as something else to do to keep me there a little bit longer. Soon I was one of the only ones left, and I sat at the bench waiting, watching the flag as it waved in the wind, now chilly. I stuffed my hands in my pockets to keep them warm and waited. For what, I didn't really know. It was slowly getting colder, and I could tell it was thinking about snowing again. It had snowed last night, but it wasn't enough to stick. Eventually, I gave up the waiting game and started to walk home, broom over my right shoulder, and dust pan in my left hand.

The Hummer Dinah drove when we went for rides those few times was in front of my house. As I approached, three doors opened, and Helena and Dinah both got out. Despite Ms. Gordon's protests, Dinah got her wheelchair and put it to the driver's side of the vehicle, and my teacher got out of her seat and crawled into the chair. I looked at them as they waited for me to reach them. I at first didn't say anything, but when I realized that a sentance from me was what they were waiting for, I said, "I waited at the school. You told me not to leave."

"I told you she heard you." Helena said in her 'I'm right, you're wrong, admit it, and never argue with me again' tone of voice, looking at Dinah but speaking to Barbara. I nodded. I looked at the door and then back at them.

"Do you want to come inside?" I asked, already knowing the answer. It was cold outside, and us talking about having abilities in the middle of the sidewalk would just be stupid. It was a really awkward moment, in case you couldn't tell. Not everyone can say that their Lit teacher, who is paralyzed from the waist down, was a crime fighter when she wasn't grading half assed essays on A Cider House Rules. Thinking of the wheelchair made me feel dumb because of the stairs in front of the house, but Helena had gently and effortlessly picked up Ms. Gordon as if it was second nature, and gave Dinah a curt nod towards the front door, signalling my ex best friend to move the wheelchair to the top step. I felt Ms. Gordon's annoyance, embaressment, and slight helplessness as she was placed back in her chair. I slowly opened the door and held it for my three guests.

The door had just barely closed when I felt the slight panic again. "Gabby, we need to know whatever it is you know about last night, and more importantly, how you know about it." All three of them stared at me, putting me on the spot. It made it harder to think of a way to tell them.

"I wasn't trying to be a smartass... Well," I smiled sheepishly, "not completely, when I told you it was a long and complicated story. I don't know where to start, but-" I thought about my saved untitled document. "A couple of months ago I was sitting on my couch watching TV when Dinah had come over..." I told them about the static, the dream I had of Helena/Huntress and Dinah's first meeting, and some of the instances where my abilities changed in any way, including my theory that since Dinah was near me when the changes occured, she might have had something to do with my abilities. I left out anything about the Institute, as that did not concern them as far as I saw, and I said nothing about Gina or what happened the night before. Though I didn't lie about anything in my story, I could tell my guests knew I was holding back.

"You heard right," Ms. Gordon said once I was finished, "you are a metahuman like Dinah and Helena." I nodded. I had figured as much when I saw the term in their minds.

"That's it?" I looked over at Dinah, who seemed shocked and somewhat hurt when it seemed that my English teacher was about to launch into a speech or explaination of some sort. "No strapping her to your meta detector that measures nueral whosit-whatsits?"

"My- uh- 'meta detector' got destroyed last night in the fight. Besides Dinah, she probably already knows everything I'm about to tell her, having already seen so much." She looked from Dinah to me. Then she looked back at Dinah. 'I sense a change in you.' I looked down at the table as I heard that thought from Ms. Gordon, perposely directed at me. Was she testing me to see if I really could hear thoughts, or was she concerned about the dramatic change in my attitude lately? 'It feels like you don't care anymore about anything.' I didn't respond in any way, mostly because I didn't know how to.

Maybe I didn't care anymore. I cared a great deal about my parents, and was scared to the core about their disappearance, but they were keeping secrets from me. Secrets the rest of my family was all in on, and I was unsure how I felt. Hell, even late Grandma Cook knew! (And she was right, damn her. She was right about me being queer and she was right about me being like my

father.) I cared about Kelly, my first best friend (that I can remember), but she'd gotten scared of me and of Dinah, and turned her back on me. Dinah too, had gotten scared of herself and left me. So maybe I didn't care...

And maybe Santa Clause is real and it was the dingo that ate my baby. Who the hell was I trying to kid? I can't even fool myself. If I didn't care, then why was I hurting so bad? Exactly. I cared, possibly too much, but who cared about me? Oh, I'm sure they all did at one point, and feel that they did even then, but why must we hurt the ones we care about?

I looked up at Ms. Gordon suddenly. "You don't have to worry about me telling anyone. Who would I tell? Exposing you would mean exposing me, and I just can't do that." Ms. Gordon nodded, surprised at my almost curt manner.

I was tired. Frankly, I wanted them to leave. I wanted to go to my room and wallow in my own self pity and not think about those who just lost everything hours ago. I wanted to cry until I had no more tears left, no more pain to cry over. I knew I would be in that room for a long time, but it didn't matter. With the school slightly destroyed, I had the time.

My three guests remained quiet until Ms. Gordon said, "Then I guess we won't keep you much longer, Gabby. If you have questions..." she trailed off as she searched her pockets for paper. I walked to the where the phone was and took a peice of Precious Moments sticky stationary paper and a pen before walking back to them. "If you have any questions about metahumans or... anything, this is the number to reach me." Oh, I had questions alright. Nothing but. I knew vaguely just about everything that dealt with metahumans and the nightly lifestyle of the women before me, but none of it completely made sense to me.

"I saw something about a- a 'Metahuman Database'." I said slowly, deliberately. Ms. Gordon watched me, as did Dinah and Helena to see what I was going to ask her. "Where do you get the information to form a list like that... or- or can you even tell me?"

"They've been gone long enough that I think I can tell you. Before many people realize they have metahuman strengths, they have hospital records stating that they have unique blood samples that was taken. I took note of the people with 'abnormal' blood, and put them in automatically. If something happens and Helena ran into a metahuman that isn't listed, I would add them as well. My biggest source is from an organization that was destroyed a few years ago that was working on testing metahuman children to study them. There is no real name for this organization, but those who have been there or work there refer to it as the Institute-"

"What?" I didn't meant to say that out loud, and certainly not in that 'you've got to be kidding me' tone of voice.

"Gabby? Do you know about the Institute?" I was still for a moment. 'Do I tell them?' I thought to myself. Dinah looked as if she wanted to grab my arm and tell me it was okay. They already knew about me, knew what I could do, and they knew about the Institute. They might even know how to get to the Bludhaven branch. I nodded slowly, but I felt a wave of fear wash over me. 'What if Barbara wants to talk to my parents about it now?'

"Yeah, I know a- about the Institute. I know because I was taken there as a kid." I shook my head as if to tell them they'll get no more than that from me. How can I tell them what I don't even know?


	17. Chapter 16: Confess

**Chapter Sixteen**

**Confess**

My three guests readied themselves to leave, and as Helena helped Ms.

Gordon down the steps, Dinah turned around, walked back in the house, closed the door behind her, and walked up to the chair I sat in (the same chair I was in the night before). To rid myself of bad memories before they came to me, I quickly stood up and faced her. We just stood there, staring at eachother and not speaking. The silence made me uncomfortable, but Dinah seemed almost used to it, as if she'd just learned to stay silent like this for long periods of time. Her eyes almost mirrored my own; sadness and grief was evident there. It was as if she tried so hard to hide her thoughts, for they were fainter than the other thoughts I heard that day. Still, I heard from her, 'I almost don't know you. I've never seen you like this... so sad.

You're so beautiful when you smile.' My chest felt heavy at that. After another moment or so, Dinah asked "Are we ever going to talk?" I shrugged.

"What more is there to say?" 'I'm sorry.' Dinah suggested in her mind, and I shrugged again.

"I understand now what my mother went through ten years ago when she gave me up. She didn't want to give me to the Redmonds, but to protect me from those who wanted to hurt her in the worst way possible, she did what she thought was best. And I... Gabby, I hated her. I cursed her every single time I was forced to stay in that closet until I lied and told them that what I saw wasn't real." I said nothing as I saw flashes of her memories with the Redmonds, almost as if she was giving them to me on purpose, a visual to go along with the story. I felt myself get angry at the cruelty they showed Dinah at such a young age, and it made me wonder why she hadn't turned out as dangerous as Kelly thought she was at first. "Last night,"

Dinah continued, making me look at her and pay attention the her story, "as you know, a woman Helena trusted had caused the damage you helped clean up today. She took over the Clocktower when Wade was there. He and Barbara were dating, and things were getting serious, but for the longest time, he didn't have a clue about who Barbara really was until a few nights ago... when I was at that fashion show. Then, with him knowing everything, Barbara was so happy. I mean, those emerald eyes made jewelry jealous..." Dinah's face seemed far away as if savoring the memory of a happy Ms. Gordon as if she will never see that sight ever again, but then her face hardened, and I felt the anger and pain before she started to speak again, "until Harley came, and Wade was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. She- She kissed him while he was under hypnosis- the power she had stolen. That had to be the only way Wade would betray Barbara or even want to gravitate towards that bitch. She kissed him- tainted him... and then she stabbed him, gloating about it later to my guardian and friend." I watched as one tear, then two and three fell from her cheeks. "She loved him, Gabby. Barbara loved Wade so much, and I-" 'love YOU so much...'

I couldn't breathe, yet still I asked, stunned, "You- you love me?" My mind heart, and body all felt ready to do cartwheels. Dinah looked shocked. I'm pretty sure that was supposed to be one of those secrets she meant to take with her to the grave. She was still and silent for a few seconds, then she nodded, stiffly almost.

"You're the only person who ever seemed to give a damn about me without me being forced upon you. You came to me, forced yourself into my life instead of the other way around. You made me want to see you out of school." She stopped talking and I heard, 'She can't know about this. What am I doing?

This goes against what I'd done last night.' I understood all too well what it all meant. Regardless of whether or not I felt the same (and I did! I did, damn it!), she wouldn't let anything come of it. She was afraid that I'd share the same fate as Mr. Brixton. Understandable. Comepletely, but my heart didn't seem to think so as I felt it rattle my rib cage. I also knew that no matter what did or didn't happen, that even if we went back to being friends, that friendship would never be the same. "So yes, Gabby," she said, snapping me out of my thoughts after a few seconds of silence, "I do love you. A lot more than I should. But I can't." I nodded, and looked at the floor.

"So where do we stand?" I finally asked. I heard a sigh.

"I honestly don't know," she said. "I want to be your friend. Hell, I want to be more than that, but it was the mistake that got Wade killed, and I can't- I won't do that to you."

"I want to stay friends with you Dinah," I said to her. "I just don't think our friendship will ever be the same. Not just because we're both metahuman and don't have to hide from eachother, but also because of what you just told me. I'd rather have that awkwardness added than to not have that friendship at all." I watched her as she took it in, and I felt a question from her. 'Does she feel the same?' I heard. I debated on whether I should tell her. Would it make any difference in her decision to stay with me or leave? Had she known last night, would it have? I felt hope a little while later. 'I don't want to lose her. She's too precious to me.' She didn't realize I could hear everything, but I didn't say anything to her.

"Then I guess I'll see you around then?" she asked me. "At school?"

"Or before then, if you'd like. I have no clue when our school's going to re-open, but because the biggest damage was just the broken windows, I don't see why it won't open before the new year." Dinah nodded.

"Definately," She looked back at the door, and faintly, I heard, 'What the hell is keeing her so long?' from an impatient Helena, and 'Please work something out. I know you don't want to lose her.' from Barbara, and it was hard to tell who that was directed to, me or her. I smiled.

"It sounds as if Helena's getting impatient out there," I told her. "We're getting together sometime soon, at least to exchange gifts. Call me," I said, letting her know without saying that this shouldn't keep us from at least trying to go back to normal, that I still wanted to see her around even though she had given me space to back out.

"I will. See you, Gabby." She turned and walked out the door, and I followed her. As she walked down the steps, I watched her blonde hair gently swish side to side. 'For the record, Dinah,' I thought to her, feeling my whole body get shaky, but feeling as if I must say this to her, if only with my mind, 'I love you, too.' At this, Dinah seemed almost as weak in the knees as I felt as I held on to the door for support. I watched her get into the Hummer and the three women drove away. My eyes were filled with longing, as were Dinah's when she looked back at me. I stood there, possibly looking like a fool, and waited for the shaky feeling to stop. I clung to the door as if it was my lifeline. Had I let go, I would have fallen to the floor like a heap of Gabby that would have to have been scooped up with a shovel.

It took me longer than I had hoped to recover. I wondered why this was. Was it because my body still felt weak at the mere thought that Dinah felt the same? Was it because the thought I had sent was filled with so much emotion it took a lot from me? I don't know why the last couple of times I had sent out messeges it made me so weak, when it hardly seemed to phase me when I sent one to my father. I was on my bed then, so I don't know. Maybe I didn't feel it as much because I was already lying down and my body had recovered before I had to move again. I just don't know.

Even with the weakness in my body, I still felt like doing cartwheels and jumping around, bouncing off the walls like Daffy Duck screaming 'whoohoo!'

until I had no voice and wouldn't be able to talk for days. Finally, I sat down at the table again, too tired to make it to the couch or my own bed. I was unsure now what to do. My parents were still gone, and I was starting to feel that fear I felt the night before when there was a knock at my door and thought it might be police. Uncle Leonard's phone was out, and I needed to get a hold of him somehow. Maybe he knew where my parents had gone. He lived on the other side of the city, but the subway was down. 'Hadn't I once summoned a phone call from Dinah? Maybe I could try to get my uncle to call me.' I thought to myself. I lay my head down on the table and imagined Leonard waking up from last night, even though it was nearing four in the afternoon. 'Uncle Leonard, please call me and let me know if you're alright.' I felt so dizzy after that. No exploding headaches, but there was the lightheaded feeling. I was glad I was sitting down. Maybe using telepathy on two people in a short amount of time was a bad idea, but if my uncle were to respond, it would have been worth it.


	18. Chapter 17: Fighting

**Chapter Seventeen**

**Fighting**

_"Stay still Dinah," Barbara says as I fidget with the cables and wait for our que. Why couldn't we just get this over with, save Helena, and go home- Oh yeah, our home isn't there anymore, and certainly not left the way we had it only hours ago. Barbara insists it's all about timing, that we have to get Helena's therapist off guard. She was the one who had engineered Guy, my somewhat nephew, I just know it. 'I hope for Helena's sake you're standing next to Selina, watching over her now, guiding her.' I feel anger, and Barbara senses it. She puts a hand upon one of mine. "Be strong Dinah. I need you to help me get Helena out of there safely. Don't get lost in anger, Dinah. Think of something else. Something that you know is worth fighting for." She's raising my hopes to fight like I had at the school for her._

_"Something worth fighting for..." My best friend's face comes to mind easily, and I hold on to it. 'I'll protect you from this madness like you protect me from the Zipper Girl title. I'll fight for you because I know you're worth fighting for.' I feel my heart swell as it had when I'd seen Gabby sitting alone on the bench by the flagpole, her head on her knuckles and a long curtain of curly blonde hair shielding her face from the world. 'She's so beautiful,' I thought then, and I couldn't stop myself from hoping that she was thinking of me, that I occupied her mind half as much as she's been occupying mine as of late. I have come to an easy conclusion in the last week that I love her. 'I love Gabby Andrews. She's worth fighting for, and so is love. Barbara loved Wade, and that love was taken away from her. I won't let that happen to me,' I think as I stares at Barbara. 'I will help take back the Clocktower. This is the only place I can ever call home. We'll fight. We'll defeat Harley Quinn and her hypnotized police goons. We'll get Helena and Alfred and Gibson, and then I must go to her, see if she's okay. I must... I can't have her fall to the hands of someone like Harley Quinn, I can't. I'll have to leave our friendship behind. I don't want to. Mom, was this right here why you had to give me up? If I die tonight, will you be there? No, I won't die tonight. I have to fight and win. I have to go to her. Being in your boots now, Mom, I forgive you. Truly, I forgive you.' My face goes slack, and my eyes burn into one of determination, and the scared girl I was seconds ago disappears._

_"Ready?" She has been watching me this whole time, and when she sees that, she knows I have made up my mind. I have to go to her._

_"Yes." I say. 'As ready as I will ever be.' She takes a deep breath._

_"Good, because I think it's our que to make our surprise entrance." I nod. It's time to fight-_

I opened my eyes to find that I was on the couch, not at the table where I had fallen asleep. A blanket that I had on my bed was spread over me, and I was using a couple of sheets from the linen closet as a pillow. Slowly, I sat up. Uncle Leonard was sitting at the table reading the paper. He stared at me for a second, then smiled. "How do you feel?"

"Better," I told him, and that must have been the first time I believed my own words in a long time.

"Good. You hungry?" I nodded, almost eagerly. The sandwhich the night before felt as if it was consumed centuries ago. I started to get up, but Uncle Leonard motioned for me not to move. He got up and went to the kitchen, and he clanked and banged for a moment, then I heard water running, which reminded me of my thirst. Seconds later, I saw him emerge with a tray loaded with a thick sandwhich, a bowl of chunky chicken noodle soup, a glass of water with only one ice cube in it the way I like it, and two white asprine tablets. How did he know that my head slightly hurt? Another thing I noticed: I could tell he was thinking very hard about something, but I didn't get a flash of anything. It was silent in his head. Not quite silent, really. It was like... well if you were in your own room but could still hear the TV faintly on the other side of the house. I could hear it was on, but not what show was playing... or something like that. I knew he was thinking, but it was indistinct "When you were about seven, you used to have dreams. Weird assed dreams. Your mother told me you would talk in your sleep, say the weirdest things... Things you wouldn't say unless you knew the secrets of those around at the moments you were dreaming. Sometimes- not always- you would wake up with a headache." I watched him as he spoke. He'd set the tray on the coffe table, and as he was telling me this, he was pushing the table closer to me.

"Anyway," he continued, "I had this strange dream that woke me up, and instead of the images I usually get, all I could see was darkness, then I heard an urgent cry from you for help. I got up and hitch-hiked from the bar to here. When I got here, it was almost four in the afternoon. I don't know what time you'd fallen asleep, so I left you alone after I moved you to the couch. Laying at the table like that couldn't have been comfortable." He made a face, and I smiled. "At about nine forty-five or so, you started to talk in your sleep. You kept saying things like 'We must fight', or- Once you said, 'I'll fight for you'." I thought about the wonderful things Dinah had thought before going in to fight for her home, and blushed. "Who were you dreaming about?" I wanted to give him two replies, but neither one of them fit Dinah's title in my life. 'Best friend' didn't quite cut it anymore, as our love for eachother transended friendship, and we weren't in a relationship, nor would we be anytime soon from the sounds of it, so the term 'girlfriend' couldn't be used, either.

"Someone special in my life, why?" Uncle Leonard looked away for a second, and then back at me.

"Gabby, when you did that- and I shouldn't even be telling you this much, so listen up 'cause I won't repeat this- When you did that, have the dreams and all, you were just getting used to your powers. Yes, Gabby. You were a mind reader. You would dream someone's memory by night and by day you'd hear thoughts as clearly as if they'd been spoken to you instead." He wanted to ask me something, but didn't seem to know where to start. "Are they back, Gabby?" I stared at him, surprised at what he was telling me. I had my powers as a kid? I took the glass of water off of the tray set on the coffee table and looked at it, then took a drink. I drank it all down in a few gulps, not stopping long enough to take the asprine like I had originally wanted to. Uncle Leonard knew I was trying to busy myself so that I didn't have to say anything right away, and knew that he could take this action as a yes. He took the glass from me and went to refill it.

When I'd drank all off that glass too, my uncle said, "Jesus Gabby, you want me to just get you a pitcher?" He was exasperated, almost angry, but when I looked at him, he seemed amused. Before I could set the glass down, he took it from me and went to refill it yet again. He brought back the promised pitcher this time and a second glass for himself. He filled them both up and it was silent as I ate, thinking about what he'd just said. Did I have my powers before they brought me to the Institute? Did they take them away? In about ten minutes, both the sandwhich and the bowl of soup was nothing more than a pleasent memory. We were quiet still as we waited. After a while, my uncle said, "I lied."

"About the Institute?" He seemed surprised, but he nodded. I looked down at my hands, which I had rested in my lap.

"Yes. I lied about not knowing anything."

"I know. I think everyone in this family knew something about it but me. It wasn't until my abilities showed up that I knew such a place exsisted." 'Unfortunately, it is destroyed now, but maybe if I could get a name or two of someone who worked there I could get a hold of someone who had dealt with me, the person who took my memory from me.'

"What do you know about it?" he asked me, fixing me with a stare that said it was important for me to tell him what I knew.

"If I told you, would you fill in the rest?"

"I made a promise to your parents-"

"Then what difference does it make, what I know?" I almost snapped. Uncle Leonard seemed taken aback by this. "I'm tired of all the secrets. I keep hearing snippets of this mystery over the Institute, but I just want to konw what happened when I was five or six that resulted in my going there and getting my memory erased." Uncle Leonard probably didn't think I knew that much about the Institute, just the fact that I knew I went there, and that it was the reson for blank spots in my memory. No, not just blank spots, almost all of my childhood before the age of nine. I wasn't going to let him know that because of Ms. Gordon's Metahuman Database I knew going to the Institue heavily had something to do with my abilities. What I didn't know was why they started taking me there. An event happened then I was five or six Why would I still be going there to that doctor five years later when I was ten or and I went to the 'doctors' in the Institute. That didn't make sense though. eleven? 'I hate this. Just when I think it's almost over, I have to go and think. When will this mystery end?' I thought to myself. More silence after that. Why was it so hard to talk to him?


	19. Chapter 18: Vegas

**Chapter Eighteen**

**Vegas**

The phone rang, saving either of us from the silence. My uncle went to go get it. "Hello? Jason?" I looked up at that. 'Daddy?' I felt relief wash over me just knowing that my father was on the other line, which meant that he was okay... I hoped. "This is Leonard. Don't worry, no one broke into your house and answered the phone... Where are you?" There was a silence. "That far? Really? Uh-huh. Yeah, she's here. She's okay, just tired. It's been a rough twenty-four hours. What's that? Yeah, she's still awake. Just woke up, actually. I don't know, you ask her. Alright... okay. OKAY Jason, I get it. Sure, hold on." He came over with the phone and said, "Talk to your father before I strangle him with this phone."

"It's a cordless, and you're not close enough to strangle him with it." He smiled as I grabbed the phone from him. "Hey Dad."

"Gabby, are you alright?"

"It's been... interesting, but I'm not hurt. I was scared, but I feel better now that Uncle Leonard got here." It was the truth. Now that I wasn't alone in the house, and now that things were cleared up between Dinah and me, and now that my father's voice was on the other end of the phone, I felt a whole lot better.

"Good, good. I'm sorry we weren't there. Your mother and I... ended up in a place we never expected to be."

In the background, I heard, "Jason, stop beating around the bush and tell her where we are. She'll get a kick out of it."

"Dad, where are you?"

"Nevada,"

"Like... Like Las Vegas, Nevada?" There was a short pause.

"Exactly... like Las Vegas, Nevada," my father admitted, and I could hear his embaressment. "Your mom and I woke up not long ago in the motel room. We- uh, got married last night." I looked over at my uncle's laughing eyes as I'm sure he knew why my mouth was hanging wide open.

"Well, and here I am without my toaster for the bridal shower," I joked, and I could hear Uncle Leonard's snort.

"Gabby, this isn't funny. We don't remember how we ended up here, though some things are slowly coming back."

"Dad, the whole city went nuts last night. People are blaming the full moon, lunar/solar alignments, the water- anything. I've seen worse. I'm just glad that you weren't one of the ones who went missing last night. You're safe, in holy matramony once again, and I couldn't be happier or more relieved," I told him, not meaing to give him a speech. There was somewhat another pause, as if he wanted to add something, but didn't.

"We'll be on the next flight to New York. Hang tight with Leonard, okay?"

"Will do."

"Your mother wants to talk to you."

"Ok-" There were sounds on the other end of the phone as it sounded like my mother took the phone from my father.

"Gabby?"

"Yeah?"

"You okay, Honey?"

"Yeah, Uncle Leonard's with me." I pretty much told her some of the things that happened. My mother asked me if 'my new friend' was okay. I told her that she seemed to be. A bit spooked like me and thousands of other people, but okay. We talked for a little while longer, our conversation longer than the one with my father, and I teased her about being hurt that I wasn't the flower girl at their wedding, and asked if it was an Elvis impersonator or a drag queen Marilyn Monroe who married them.

"Oh shush!" After my laughter subsided, she said, "I'll- we'll call you when we know our itinerary, and we'll be home soon."

"Don't end the honeymoon on my account. Now that I know you're okay and where you are, you can spend a couple of days alone if you want to. I'll be here."

"Oh no, sweetheart," my mother said. I was suprised that she sounded almost disgusted by the thought, as if she would rather be home. "We really need to get home. We have to talk, the three of us when we get there." I frowned, worried.

"Nothing good ever comes from those words, Mom."

"I know... I know, but it can't be talked about over the phone, otherwise I would just come out and say it." I felt somewhat scared, but somewhat curious. Were they finally going to tell me the truth? After what I knew already and what I've heard about Dinah, did I WANT to know? Well, of course I wanted to know. Someone out there had my memories, and a big piece of the puzzle. If they could take it away, maybe they can put it back. I have thought if this before. If my parents finally decide to tell me after they've worked so hard to keep it from me, I wanted to know why they had decided that now was the time to tell me. What changed? Was it because my dad knew I had my abilities now, and wanted to tell me so he could help me use them? Was it because they were afraid of me hearing it not from the horse's mouth? Were they afraid that my abilities will tell me anyway, so they wanted to tell me before I figured it out on my own, which for the most part I already have (I think)? Did they guess that I already knew most of the truth? Hell, with the way I was acting towards and around them, they had to have thought something. When my dad guessed that my abilites had come... well, BACK from what Uncle Leonard had said, he could have told my mother and they could have come to the decision to tell me. Maybe they hadn't come to this decision until after what happened at Thanksgiving. "Gabby?" I must have been silent for too long.

"Yeah, Mom. We'll talk when you two get home," I said trying so hard not to cringe.

"Okay. I want to talk to your uncle." I gave him the phone after my 'I love you', and sank into the sheets used as pillows.

"Hey Linda. Yeah. We'll be okay. Be safe. Bye." Uncle Leonard hung up the phone and chuckled.

"They didn't sound too happy to be remarried," I said, shifting a little bit.

"I'm sure it's just because of their confusion. That, and I'm sure the whole fiasco cost them a fortune." I nodded.

"They want to talk when they get home. No one wants to hear that," I said.

"I've come to dread those words myself," Uncle Leonard agreed.

"I'm starting to," came my reply.

"Are you still hungry? I know there's still some more soup in the kitchen." I shook my head with a small smile. "Okay." He sat down on the chair next to the couch and stared at me for a second. "So, tell me about this 'someone special' in your life," he said, using his fingers to show quotation marks around the 'someone special' part. He was looking as if he was about to get comfortable in the chair as he prepared to listen to me talk for a long period of time.

"Well, it's all kind of complicated. We've been friends for two months, and I started to like her maybe... a month and a half ago," I explained. I told him that I wasn't sure what will happen to our friendship now that she'd told me that she loved me, and that I told her that I loved her in return. I left out the part about her being a metahuman like me. I also failed to mention that Dinah was scared to be in love with me, to be in a relationship other than friendship because she was scared that she would somehow indirectly get me killed.

"What's she like then?" Then, I felt the impatience from him, and I heard 'Is she purposly avoiding the question or am I not just asking her correctly?' "What's her name?"

"Dinah," I said. I grinned as I thought of Dinah's beautiful face. "Her name is Dinah, and she's sweet, shy most of the time, mysterious..." I got lost in thought a little bit.

"She pretty?"

"Beautiful," I agreed, nodding my head.

"Lesbian?" At this, I frowned in thought.

"I don't know." Uncle Leonard frowned as well. For a split second we looked alike, but only for a nanosecond.

"How could you not know? If she loves you too, then I'm sure she's got to be at least bisexual."

"I just.. don't know. I thought for sure a couple of weeks ago that she was straight, and I was just biding my time, waiting for my feelings to go away. Now, she could be confused about all of this which might be why we can't be together. Either that, or she's one of the many who feel that love shouldn't be defined or labled with race or orientation, that love is love no matter what." My uncle nodded, his brow softening. "She's scared, Uncle Leonard. She doesn't want to get hurt. I know that life has hurt her a lot already." I heard from him, 'And life's hurt you a lot already too. You just don't-' His thoughts were cut off, and suddenly some old song from the sixties overrode whatever it was his thoughts were going to reveal. I stared at him, and after fifteen or so seconds, he looked down. "Uncle Leonard, what bought me to the Institute? What happened?"

"Your parents chose for things to be this way, Gabby. It is not my place to say anything. Trust me, your parents will tell you when they think you're ready- it might even be when they get home, but for right now, drop it. As much as I want to... I just can't tell you." His eyes landed on everything in the room but me. He couldn't look at me, and his mind was trying desperately to think of anything but whatever it was that brought me to the Institute. I watched him for a little while longer, then sighed as I looked at the blankets.

"This is not a subject I can just drop and talk about the weather. I can't just turn away and pretend it never happened. That would require me KNOWING what happened in order to pretend it never did." Again, I sighed and rolled my eyes in anger when Uncle Leonard had no response to that. I threw the blanket off of me and stood up slowly, unsure if it would make me dizzy. When I was completely on my feet, I said, "I'm going to my room-"

"Gabby, don't run from me."

"I can't believe you expect me to stay in here with you knowing what you know- knowing how inportant it is to me and who I am. I trusted you, Uncle Leonard, all of you. I felt you all were good at keeping me safe, but who are you really trying to protect now? Me or yourselves?" I shook my head and closed my eyes in a slow blink. "Come get me if my parents get home in the next few hours. You can do that, can't you?" I could tell he was angry at what I'd said, and I admit it was mean, but I didn't care. It wasn't just him I was angry at, but he was the only one there, poor guy.

"Gabby-" he said in a warning tone, but I cut him off before he could say anything or I lost my nerve.

"Don't. Don't speak to me if you cannot tell me the truth." Thankfully, he said nothing else, and I made my escape to my room. If he had, I don't know if I would have been able to answer him. I left him there in our living room. I felt trapped in my room. If I felt I wanted to escape later by going for a walk or something, I would have to face him, and after what I had just said, I knew I couldn't do that. I lay across my bed, missing the warmth my body heat and the couch linens had worked together to provide me. My bed felt cold in comparison. I felt my anger slowly leave me when I started to fantasize that Dinah was in a long flowing dress. In my mind, her hair was the way I'd seen it when she was trying to impress Matt, her lips had a shimmer to them due to gloss, and her eyelashes had mascera on them, making her eyes look brighter. Despite my deathly fear of water, I knew that I could drown in those pools. In this fantasy, I was taller, and she looked up at me with so much love in her eyes. I was wearing a black tuxedo with a light blue cumberbun and tie. There was a matching colored mask over my eyes and nose, but there was no disguising who I was with her, or my love for her. I told her in my mind that she was so beautiful, and she said to me, 'I am beautiful only because you love me, Gabby.'

I made my mind lose the image after that. My chest had tightened and started to ache, not at all unlike it had when Dinah tried to end our friendship. My heart started to pound, and I put my hand on my chest to feel it thud against my fingers. "Tell me what you want from me and I'll do it," I whispered to no one in particular. "Tell me what to do to find the truth." I knew the best way to get the truth would be to talk to my parents. I was so afraid of telling them everything and getting nothing in return. Maybe telling them everything might get me everything in return. Maybe I will ask them, as I had asked Uncle Leonard, if they would supply the rest if I told them what I knew. I was no longer afraid of going to the Institute, in fact, I was convinced that going to the Institute would have been the one course of action to take then, had it not been destroyed. As I drifted off to sleep, I thought about finding the doctor who could have taken my memories and the hope in finding him again and gaining my memories back made me smile.


	20. Chapter 19: Picnic

**Chapter Nineteen**

**Picnic**

_The lights were off. Maybe I should turn back and try again, and I think if I hadn't taken the last subway for the night, I would have, but I don't. This is important. I have to talk to them. I don't wan't to wake her up by knocking on the front door, so I go around to their bedroom window and tap on it using the code my sister and I invented when we were kids. 'Knock knock pause knock'. 'Are you awake?' I waited. Then I heard, 'knock knock knock knock pause knock knock'. If I remember correctly, that means 'You just woke me up.' I then see my sister open the window. "Lenny, what are you doing here, and why haven't you used the front door?" she asks._

_"Is Gabby asleep?" Linda looks almost scared._

_"Yes. Lenny, is she okay?" I look around._

_"Wake up Jason, and we'll go for a drive. We have to talk, it's important, and we can't be overheard," I say. Linda nods, then looks towards the door, as if to look through it. I know she's checking on my neice to make sure she was, in fact, sleeping. "She'll be fine, just go!" I walk back around the house and ten minutes or so later, my older sister and brother in law exit the house, closing the door so delicately that Gabby couldn't have heard it even in dead silence of her room. The two almost matched; I almost gagged. In this act, this 'everything is peachy keen and the world is nothing but butterflies and rainbows and kittens' act that they've been playing the last five or six years especially, I often wonder if they sometimes believe it when they say 'I love you' to eachother when they'd each hold one of Gabby's hands and walk through the mall or something like a happy normal family. They have been living this lie for her benifet, when I know that this family is far from happy OR normal, and all of this was an act, a TV reality show that Gabby didn't know she was the star of._

_"Leonard, tell us what this is about," Jason tells me as soon as he's close enough to be heard at a murmur._

_"Not here. Let's go for a drive. If we hurry, we can make it to New Gotham Park before it closes for the night, talk, and be back here before Gabby notices anything's amiss." They nod, and we take all pile into their car. It's not far to the Park, and we get out and sit at one of the picnic tables filled with various grafetti. 'Batman will return' is what one of them says on the table near where I sit. Another says, 'Batman will save us'. The marks are cut deep, and I knew it took this person a lot of time, patience and possibly a lot of strength in the hands. It is dark in the Park, and even I don't like it. "Look," I say to them, wanting to get it all over with quickly so what we could get out of there, "Gabby came over earlier today. She asked me about metahumans, and seemed to show great interest in them. I've never seen her bat an eye when they were talked about on the news, but today when I called them freaks, she looked pained. I'm thinking her powers are coming back." Jason looks at my sister and she nods. He leans into me as if he doesn't want anything else in the silent park to overhear us._

_"We've been thinking the same thing," he says, and I frown in confusion. If they've been thinking that she's gotten her powers back, then why didn't they tell the rest of us? Why haven't they done anything? "Linda had been out with her and her new friend Deana-"_

_"Dinah, Jason," Linda corrects, and I look at her. Helena has a sister named Dinah. She comes to the bar on occasion, but I've only seen her once or twice. Could this be the same girl? They are about the same age._

"Right..." Jason corrects himself. "Dinah. She'd been out to a movie, and while they were gone, the new doctors in the remade Institute called. It scared me. After what happened last time..." He won't look at me at that, and I'm glad. I don't want to think about the last time they were all in that god-awful place. "It scared me," he says again, "and I snapped at Gabby, and she got mad at me, understandably. The next day- I swear to god I heard her voice in my head like when she was younger. She asked me what she had inherited from me, making me wonder if she knew about the metahuman gene passed down in my family. I tried to use my mind to get through to her, but she couldn't hear me."

_"What did you say to her, Jason?" I ask._

_"Only if she could hear me."_

_"I think we should tell her the truth. If she's got her powers again, then she's going to hear one of us thinking about it. The Institute- all of it. It'll be harder for her to deal with it, figuring out on her own, than if we'd just told her." I say, though Gabby knows about the Institute. I'm not sure how much she knows, though, but I can assume that whatever she does know, she got it from Jason. _

_"How many times are we going to go through this, Leonard-"_

_"As many times as it takes for you to tell your daughter- who isn't stupid and would probably figure it all out anyway- the truth. Tell her the truth, Jason! You owe her that much after all that's been done to her," I say, knowing I am out of line. Knowing that I should apologise. I've had enough of this charade now that Gabby is sixteen. She's old enough to understand what had happened and why. It is then my sister speaks up._

_"Jason isn't the only one responsible for this, Lenny. We raised our children together." She's soft with her words, and I know she is right. I say nothing more for a long time._

_"It's only a matter of time," I stand up after that cryptic sentance, then say, "I've always wondered how you were able to keep Gabby in blissful ignorance about her past. Surely she's tried to think back on something and see all of the blank spots."_

_"Dr. Hubert took care of that a long time ago." It didn't make sense._

_"But I thought-"_

_"I know." Jason cut me off. "I know. It doesn't. A lot of this doesn't. Something is going on here that I can't figure out, and you're right, we do need to talk to Gabby about it all, but not now. I've told Linda that she's happy."_

_"She is? What about the moping and the seclusiveness... you call that happy, Jason? Gabby was a freaking ray of sunshine a while ago. She needs to know what is going on."_

_"And she will. She will..."_

_"We might tell her soon. We've agreed on that. If she shows anymore signs of the powers she had as a child, we will sit her down and talk to her. We'll tell her everything." Linda says, her voice breaking us up. I stay silent as I think this over. That is a fair compromise. If she shows any signs. Maybe I can hint that to her somehow. Maybe she will find out and her fears will subside, and they can truly be happy family again. Not like-_

_"Another thing I am worried about... I think she has his powers," I say. "I told her that I didn't know much about- about metahumans and she looked me in the eyes and she knew- KNEW I was lying through my teeth. Either I am getting bad at this, you guys, or she could feel it. She's never looked right at me after I said a lie and tell me with her eyes that I am a liar. He always did that."_

_"I've noticed that, too. She watches us like a hawk. She might have even gotten the empathy power before the thoughts," Jason murmurs._

_"If you're still not going to say anything for a long time, then I suggest you keep your thoughts to yourself. Who knows how developed these powers are. Who knows what she can or can't hear." Both of them nod, and I watch them as they both stand up and face me-_

There was a knock on my door. "Gabby!" It was my uncle. I looked at the clock. I was ten in the morning. Had I slept nineteen hours, give or take? Had those thoughts taken that much out of me?

"Yeah, come in," I called out to him. My door opened slowly and my uncle poked his head inside to see if it was safe to enter.

Not knowing for sure, he had to ask instead, "You still angry with me?" I shook my head, thinking to myself that this scene looked like the one a few weeks ago when my father had tried to send me a mental messege that I had ignored.

"I wouldn't have let you in if I was, Uncle Leonard. You were just caught in the middle, playing the double agent," I said, my voice evidence of the grogginess I still felt. I moved my blanket off of my legs and regretted the action as soon as I did. I saw the frosty weather outside the partially closed curtains and wanted nothing more than to lay in my warm bed and hyberate until winter was over. I never wanted to leave, I felt then, not even to see Dinah. In fact, Dinah could join me... with clothes on of course... if she REALLY wanted to keep them on, that is.

Before my mind could fall any deeper into the gutter, my uncle said, I wanted to let you know that your friend Kelly is here. She's waiting by the door for you. You want me to just let 'er into the room?" I nodded, surprising myself with how nervous I felt. I wondered if she started to remember some things about the night New Gotham went a little batty... no pun intended considering it was a nemisis of Batman and Batgirl's that was to blame... Anyway, I wondered what she would say to me, knowing what she knew and being sane enough to process that information.

"Okay," he said, and left, just like that. I think I made him uncomfortable to be near me, and I felt like the biggest bitch in the world. Uncle Leonard was on my side... half the time, and though I had acknowledged this to him, I never did say I was sorry for what I'd said to him the night before, and knew that I should. I heard him say "Come in," to my friend, and a moment later, I saw her frame in my doorway, her body bundled up despite only coming over from next door.

"Hey," she said softly, holding and messing with the object in her hand. I couldn't see it due to her big gloves, but when she walked further into the room, I noticed it was a CD case. When she saw me eying it curiously, she handed it to me, and I noticed that it was my Ace of Base CD, the one with the song The Sign, which Kelly had fallen in love with at the time she'd borrowed it from me. I hadn't seen this in ages. "I came across this when I was cleaning my room. See, got nothing else to do since I am grounded for not getting the boys the other day," She was nervous, and so was I. I tried to make things less awkward for the both of us by making things light between us, and wasn't sure if it worked.

"Though I would've loved to have gotten that CD, oh... three years ago, that isn't why you've come over, was it?" Kelly smiled at my teasing tone.

"No, it wasn't, to tell the truth. I came over to apologise for how I've been to you. I was a snot, and when I was at my worst, you let me cling to you and tuck me into bed!" She shook her head. "You had every right to leave me there sobbing like an idiot. I deserved it."

"I take it you remember everything?" I asked.

"It's coming back slowly but surely. How come you weren't affected by that craziness?" I shrugged. I didn't know exactly. My only guess was that I hadn't watched the TV when she, that Harley Quin lady, was on it with those creepy black eyes, but I couldn't say this to Kelly, as she didn't know the who and the why of that night like I did.

"I don't know Kelly, but that night was scary. I hope something like that never happens again."

"Same here," she agreed. She stared at me and my nerves came back some, or it increased, whatever. I could hear the words she'd shouted at me. She was thinking about that night. "You aren't curious?"

"About why I wasn't affected? Hell yeah, I'm curious," I said, but I knew what she was really talking about.

"No," she said with an eyeroll, "I meant, 'Aren't you curious about why I said what I had'?"

"I would think it was quite obvious why you said what you had said to me. You knew about my abilities somehow- Dinah's too, and didn't like it. Didn't like what it meant for you, and you hated it- Don't look at me like that," I said when she seemed shocked at what I told her, as if she didn't expect for me to know, "It's natural to hate your metahuman abilities, I would guess, like some people I've read about who hate being gay or something. It's weird, but I've come to terms with it."

"What, your powers or your sexuality?" I gave her a playfull glare, if such a thing can be pulled off. If anything, she knew that my look couldn't really kill.

"No, doofus." Kelly had laughing eyes for a minute, but then looked down.

"You're right, thought. It feels like I'm in the closet with it or something, you know? My patents don't know about it, or if they do, they play dumb better than some of the guys at our school."

"Mine don't know either, but they suspect it. Only my uncle knows for sure and he just found out."

"Yours is genetic, isn't it? I know your dad..."

"Yes, my dad is also different, I think." I told her. Kelly's voice went softer, and she never looked back up at me when she spoke.

"I am not like you, Gabby. You powers are genetic. Mine aren't." I frowned. I knew through Ms. Gordon that some metahumans aquired their abilities through other means, but the most common way was through genetics, blood work, and lab explosions (you'd be surprised at how many of those there used to be way back in the day, and later, those who had children simply passed on the gene). "You weren't here yet when this happened, but when I was really young, like 7 or something, I had been diagnosed with Childhood Acute lymphoid leukemia (ALL). At the time, they had treatments, but it wasn't quite curable like it is now. I was given an experimental drug treatment as a last resort before a bone marrow transplant, and... well, it worked for me, a lot better than my doctor had hoped.

"It wasn't long after I got out of the hospital that I started to get this weird feeling down the back of my neck, like a ghost or something was running their fingers along it, and making me almost shiver or run away in fear. You know, or both. When Chris was being nice to me, and almost courting me within school grounds, I resisted him because he made me feel that way, too. When he... when it... happened, I saw his arm stretch around the car to grab at me again. I knew from then on what it all meant. I could feel what those people who made me edgy- Chris, Mr. Fangi, Gina Halliwell just to name a few- could do. I knew even what they would be able to do once their powers evolved. I knew the moment Dinah entered that lab class that she had those powers. She's the only person I'd seen who had more than just one spacific power, and when you started to be friends with her, I saw that you did, too. I saw your telepathy and empathy. I saw it, and I was so scared that you'd read my thoughts and know about me. I would talk to you, but I knew it wasn't quite the same. I could tell you didn't know, exactly, but the change in you was clear." I was quiet for some time after that, at first not sure if her story was finished or not, but then I nodded.

"Like I told you that night, it wasn't as if I've been at it all my life. It was still really new- it IS still really new. I was only picking up one or two words hear and there, and it was all just a constant humming in my head."

"That would drive me nuts!" I laughed at her look of almost horror.

"It did! It was a confusing time for me, as it must have been for you. I didn't know until after I had gotten my abilities that it came from my dad, which, now that I think about it... You never acted weird around him," I said, but Kelly was nodding her head.

"I never stayed over that first year we were friends if he was there, and I always hid behind you, remember?" I nodded. "I mean, that all changed after a while. I got used to his presence, and your dad was nice to me- a lot nicer than mine, and he always included me in stuff as if I was your sister or something." At the word 'sister', my mind reeled, thinking about the memory I had dreamed of the night before. I kept hearing 'his powers' and 'our children', the phrases running amock in my mind. I shoved them all aside and tried to listen to my friend's words.

"So, now that we know this of eachother, are we still friends? I mean truly?" Kelly nodded. "And when school starts again, Kels, will you try to play nice with Dinah?" No responce, at least, not at first.

"She's powerful, Gabby. When her powers evolve to their highest state, there's no stopping her." I was surprised by this, and tried to imagine Dinah destroying the world with one thought, her mind sending the world into tumoil after making the earth's core bubble to the surface and burning everyone alive and remaking the world to her liking, all molton-y and hardened by the icy air she made by moving all the- Okay, so I couldn't see it. None of it. I just couldn't imagine Dinah being dangerous. But then again, there was the matter of that man I saw in Dinah's head and the pure unchained rage that came with them. She wanted that man dead, and part of me thinks she really would have killed him, too. At the same time, she wouldn't have wasted time on chitchat with the man, either, thus hesitating long enough for Helena to talk her, or rather force her out of killing him, so yay! No evil Dinah!

"She may be powerful, but luckily, she's on our side," I said. I couldn't tell her more than that, and I'd felt guilty for giving that much away, if only slighty. It wasn't my place to tell her a secret that wasn't even mine, hinted or not. "She's just a teenaged girl trying to find her place in life with her powers, just like you or me. If we don't turn our backs on her now, then she'll have no reason to want to ... " I lowered my voice in my best Darth Vader (which I found out, wasn't very good at all), "join The Dark Side, Luke," I returned to my normal voice, "because she will be loved and will have no reason to want to." Kelly nodded.

"She hasn't done anything to me, and she didn't deserve the welcome I gave her when she first got here. I'll be good," she vowed. I nodded again. We talked for a while after that, and I told her about what I had done to Jeremy Fox and how spooked he was. Kelly told me about a couple of teachers who were metahuman, and was surprised to hear that our vice prinipal, Mr. Warner, could turn into a black dog like Sirius Black from the Harry Potter books. Then she told me about some of the students, and when she mentioned Gina again, I pretended I didn't already know. 'She doesn't even know what weapons those wings will be later.' At Kelly's thought, I looked up at her. She knew I heard her. "I now she isn't dangerous now, nor is Dinah, but the people they could become may be dangerous. But you're right Gabster, if we're good to them now, they won't be. Dangerous, that is."  
"What about you or me?"

"What ABOUT you or me?" Kelly echoed.

"People tend to think about the truth or have a small feeling of guilt when they lie. I could use it to my advantage, and what I do with that knowledge could be dangerous. And you, you could loan your powers to someone who is searching for someone with- say, a fire ability, which they'd use to destroy buildings and such. What I'm saying is, no matter what our abilities are, we could all find a way to turn it into something dangerous."

"I know you're right, Gabby, but I'm still scared. When I was-"

"Please don't say it. It gives me the creeps," I pleaded.

"That's how I feel," Kelly said, and I nodded.

"I know. Whenever you mention it or talk about it, I feel what you felt then, and I see him in my head. His strength was... and the fact that his limbs could stretch... the fact that he used it to hurt you... I understand now why you were so afraid of people like us." Never thought I would say that to Kelly, but it was the truth. I looked down at the floor. My cell phone, sitting quietly on my charger, started to ring, and I ignored it.

"Aren't you going to answer that?" I shook my head.

"I have company. It would be rude," I replied as it rang for a second time. Kelly stood up and walked towards my charger.

"What if it is your parents?" I hadn't thought of that. "Besides," she added, tossing my phone to me, and I caught it with both hands, "I've got to get going anyway. I'm sort of grounded for not picking up the boys. My parents weren't sure what had happened to me, and I couldn't tell them I simply went crazy, so they said I have to stay in the house for a couple of weeks. Not that I would want to go anywhere with the weather the way it is... I should leave." I nodded, and she left with a wave before the third ring was finished.

"Bye." On the forth ring, I flipped open my phone to see it wasn't my parents, or even the 'Private Number' I got whenever Dinah called me. The area code told me that the caller was in New Gotham, and the first three numbers were the same as the first three numbers of my home phone, telling me that the caller was close. "Hello?" I said slowly, hoping it wasn't a telemarketer.

"Gabby? This is Gina."

"Gina, are you okay? Where are you?"

"Yes, I'm okay. I luckily never left New Gotham. After I spoke to you, I took your advice and went home to change into darker clothes. My mom was there, and tricked me into believing she was one of The Powers That Be, told me that the Book of Shadows- their spell book-"

"Yeah, I knew that-" I said, but she kept going as if to not hear me.

" -was in our basement for safekeeping from whomever was responsable for the madness that night. She locked me in there until I fell asleep. I woke up with my wings out. It wasn't until late last night that I started to remember what happened. I remember now that you were there with me that night trying to get me from the roof. I know you thought I was a jumper, and that my wings weren't real. You were trying to save my life. I wanted to thank you for that. For playing along and not telling me I was crazy. For letting me be stupid and giving me a helpful warning when you knew it was the only thing you could do. If you hadn't told me to go home first, who know what would have happened to me." She stopped talking after a second, and I felt as if I couldn't say anything. What was going on? First Kelly, now Gina? Did everyone know what happened to them that night? Was that why Uncle Leonard had come to me and my parents had called last night? "I also wanted to thank you for not telling anyone about my wings."

"They're beautiful. You have no clue how many times I wished I could just fly away."

"At this point, they can barely carry me a mile, let alone take me to San Fransisco. I'm only good at gliding, and even that I can't do because this city doesn't sleep long enough for me to go unnoticed with them. I truly must have been crazy to think I could save my 'sisters' with them." I laughed.

"Someday they might," I told her, hoping I sounded as encouraging as the statement was meant to be. "Hell, you might be able to bring me to San Diego on your way there."

"I doubt that. I couldn't carry you."

"You calling me fat?" I asked playfully, knowing she implied nothing of the sort. I heard a laugh on the other end.

"Of course not. I'm calling myself a weakling. Anyway, we should get together before the school gets rebuilt," she suggested.

"Sure. We could hang out soon."

"That sounds great." She gave me her number, which was the number displayed on my phone when she had called.

"By the way," I said, "how did you get this number?" There was a pause.

"Don't get mad-"

"Which means, that is exactly what I'm going to do, isn't it?"

"Maybe. I ran into your girlfriend and told her I needed to talk to you- It was the truth, and I asked if she knew how to get ahold of you. You aren't listed in the phone book. Anyway, Dinah gave me this number," she explained.

"Oh, that is nothing to get mad about, and Dinah's not my girlfriend" I added absently, thinking 'No matter how much I wish it were true.' I could almost see Gina's eyebrow raise, something that I was getting used to seeing from her, but I didn't want to go back into the subject of Dinah with her. I wasn't about to tell her that Dinah knew of my feelings for her and that she returned them. She would only ask why we weren't-in her own words- 'screwing eachother's brains out'. "So," I said, changing the subject, "your parents know that you're a me- different?" I didn't want to use the term 'metahuman' because I didn't want her to suspect that I knew what happened that night and that I knew a lot more than I should about people with abilities.

"Oh yeah. She's known since I was born. At birth, I had them out, and she was so proud of them. She might have known before I was born becau-" she stopped talking abruptly.

"Hmm?" I prompted.

"You know about me already, and you didn't tell anyone, so I trust you. My mother. I got it from my mother. She can turn into a crow, but she doesn't do it often. Only when she knows I am up to no good."

"All of your family different?"

"It's just me and my mother. As soon as my dad saw the wings, he left the hospital. I guess my mother never told him... " She sounded sad about not knowing her father, but she seemed to to brighten a little after that. "Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks for not telling anyone and not freaking out on me. In fact, your calmness about this whole thing- even now, sort of worries me. It feels as if we're talking about the weather."

"I've always heard about the people with abilities on the news and I thought it would be neat if I had any, especially flying like you have."

No..." Gina said slowly, "I remember trying to stay hidden. I remember that you acted as if you were looking for me. I saw that much on your face when I first turned around. I felt in my head a sense of urgency as if you knew I was there and knew what I was planning to do and wanted to stop it. I don't know... it felt like you sent those fears to me, which is why I hadn't just run from you and jumped anyway." I stayed silent for a minute.

"It is only fair that I tell you everything..." I said, then hesitated. "I'm a- a telepath, I guess... Man, I don't think I have ever said that out loud before. Feels good," I admitted.

"Like, you read minds and stuff?"

"Yes... and stuff," I repeated playfully.

"I never would have guessed that about you Gabby."

"What about you? I thought it was the craziness that made you think you had wings. I mean, come on, some guy thought I was Madonna that night!"

"Man, and to think we sat next to eachother and all we found to talk about was Charmed and Xena."

"It's not like I would've talked about that where I could be overheard, anyway. 'Sides, when we had started to become friends a bit, I was barely getting anything, thoughts and such, from people," I told her, though I thought about how our friendship might be after this. I heard a female voice in the background, but I couldn't hear what exactly she said. It sounded almost like a warning.

"I've got to go. Mom needs to do some buiness online, and needs the phone. I'll see you at school?" she asked as if we didn't share a class together.

"Yeah,"

"Talk to you later, then."

"Bye."

"Bye Gabby." I put my phone back on its charger even though it was fully charged. I just put it there so I didn't forget where I placed it later. I sat on my bed for a moment and thought things over.

"Hm," I said as I got up again a couple of minutes later, and I went out into the living room where Uncle Leonard was watching a movie. Some old western on the AMC channel. I felt that he was bored, but he didn't seem to know what to do to get rid of that boredom.

"Uncle Leaonard, do you remember what happed two nights ago, the things you did?" I could almost see him cringe, but he nodded.

"Yeah, I was stupid," he said in somewhat of a grunt, "Why?"

"I was talking to Kelly. I ran into her that night, and I just talked to another friend I had been with that night as well... They both remember what they had done that night, but not until only last night."

"Yeah, same here. I started to remember right when I got here. I got the urgent sense that you needed me here, and I right when I got here, I was listening to your messeges in case you got a call from Linda 'n' Jason, and I heard the messege I left. I was such an idiot, and I'm sorry if I scared you, Gabby," he said, shifting his gaze from the TV to me as I stood by the couch. I nodded and thought a little bit more, then looked at him. He'd been watching me.

"Is it okay if I went to Dinah's? I have to talk to her," I said. My uncle's eyes narrowed susptiously, then shifted to somewhat concern.

"Are you okay? You're asking some weird questions again." Uncle Leonard didn't seem concerned about the questions themselves or even the motives, just the fact that it seemed so sudden that I wanted to leave the house after hearing his answers to them. "Did something happen to you that night? Last night?" he asked.

"Something like that."

"I don't care where you go," he said after a minute. I could feel he wanted to press me more about why I wanted to leave and what I wanted to talk to Dinah about, but he felt as well that he didn't desurve to get anything from me when he couldn't tell me what my family was up to with the Institute. He didn't think that in actual words, but I felt it, the curiousity, the concern, the slight fear, and anger at himself. "You're old enough to go where you please and to understand the consequences of your actions. Just call if you're going to be later than eleven."

"I don't think I will be gone that long," I assured him. "I have to take a shower since I haven't done that yet, and I've got to call her to see if it's okay." He nodded, and as I went back in the direction of my room, he turned back to the western.


	21. Chapter 20: Inkling

**Chapter Twenty**

**Inkling**

I called the number Ms. Gordon had given me the day before, and heard her authorative voice after the second ring. "Hello Gabby. Got a question already?"

"I'll always have questions, Ms. Gordon, but I am calling because I have a theory of sorts- guesses really, about something that I just heard, and I wanted to discuss it with you. I cannot do that over the phone because my uncle is in the next room. Would it be okay if we all met somewhere- Helena too?" I asked, not sure what she would say to that.

"Is that Gabby?" I heard my friend say faintly as if she was right there, but faded.

"Am I on speakerphone or something?" I asked.

"No, your voice is being transmitted through the Delphi, which is the number you called," Ms Gordon explained to me.

"The Delphi has its own phone number?"

"It has many, I heard Dinah speak up.

"Seriously?"

"Hey, it does everything else, it might as well be a phone, too." Dinah said.

"Anyway," my teacher said, cutting of anything that I might have had to say to that, "yes, you can come over, but Helena won't be here. She disappeared after we talked to you yesterday, and she didn't go back to her place, so I don't konw where she is."

"Can't you just track her down with your comm signals or whatever?" I heard Dinah laugh in the background, as if I suggested that maybe Helena went shoe shopping all night.

"I would, but I think Helena need some time alone." I don't know why I nodded to that when I knew Ms. Gordon and my friend wouldn't be able to see it.

"I'll come get you in an hour. I just got finished training, and I need a shower," Dinah said.

"Same here, except for the 'just got out of training' part. An hour sounds great," I told her. Dinah laughed again. She seemed to be in a good mood then, which was odd considering what had happened a couple of nights before.

"Alright then, we'll see you in a bit," Ms Gordon said, and after saying our goodbyes, I hung up. 'I will not think about Dinah in the shower, I will not think about Dinah in the shower, I will not think about Dinah in the shower... Damn it.'

Forty-five minutes later, I was sitting next to Uncle Leonard on the couch with my feet on his lap. When I had put them there, he gave me a glare, but didn't push them off. The same western was on, and the main showdown was over, the main character was wounded but vicrtorious, and the prize woman was in his arms as he winced in pain because of the bullet wouind in his side. I waited for the doorbell to ring or a knock on the door as I only halfway payed attention to the woman swooning. Next to me, I sensed a sadness, and I looked over just in time to see my uncle wiping a tear from his eye, and a grief and longing was so strong within him as he watched the couple on the screen share a passionate kiss. An image of Mark, I assumed, popped into my head, and I looked at my uncle. Mark was Uncle Leonard's first and only lover (as far as I knew). He wasn't like anything I had ever imagined when Leonard told me stories of him. In the image I saw of Mark in my uncle's mind, Mark was a bear of a man, with balding brown hair and green eyes, a husky build, but he was still handsome in his own way.

I studied my uncle's face for a second. In what little memories I had, I don't think I had ever seen him like this. He quickly wiped his left eye, the eye the offending tear fell from. "Did he die, Uncle Leonard?" I asked, not meaing to sound so small, as if I was eleven again, sitting on the floor and listening to his stories of coming aout and being with Mark. I didn't remember Uncle Leonard ever telling me what happened to him, and I knew I asked many millions of times, but he wouldn't answer me. He would only say that it didn't end well. After that, he would go into another story I liked, the story of the day he met my dad, which had always made me laugh and forget about Mark.

Uncle Leonard shook his head. "He... chose his work over me," he said. He took the remote control from the coffee table as I slid my legs off of him and let them slowly rest on the floor. He turned the TV off as I looked down at my knees, trying to picture what kind of work Mark had done that would make him leave my uncle, or make my uncle leave him. "Now, I don't want none of that pitying crap. I don't need it." I looked up at him and smiled, but it didn't reach my eyes.

"There's the bitter old man I know and love," I said fondly, scooting close enough to him so I could rest my head on his left shoulder while my right hand went around his back to his right shoulder in a partial hug.

"Damn straight,"

"A straight person? Where?" I asked, pretending to look around. Uncle Leonard smiled. I felt the static. She was there. I sat up and stood.

"Dinah's here," I said.

"How do you know?" Leonard asked, looking startled. I shrugged with a smirk as the doorbell rang.

"She thinks loudly." I replied, walking quickly to get the door, but held myself down a bit. I felt excited, but knew I shouldn't be. After all, this wasn't a date or anything. I was just going to see the residents of the Clocktower for a buisness meeting of sorts. Why was my heart pounding like it had the night before? Uncle Leonard stood up then as well, and I sensed curiosity. He wondered what kind of girl would make me so crazy for her. I opened the door and saw the shy girl in front of me. "Hey," I said, letting her inside. "I've got to get my shoes, coat and gloves. I'll be right back- Oh! Dinah, this is my uncle, Leonard Cook. Uncle Leonard, this is Dinah Redmond."

"Lance, actually. I took back my mother's name recently," Dinah said, and I nodded as my friend said, "It was nice to see you again, Mr. Cook." 'So they HAD met already once before.' I thought.

"Oh please! Call me Leonard. Mr. Cook is my father, and I am not that far over the hill yet."

"Yeah, I think you've still got an hour or two," I added in. That earned me a glare, and I grinned. Uncle Leonard pointed to my room.

"Go get your stuff or you're grounded until your parents get home. It was an empty threat, but I still laughed and walked away, knowing that my friend and uncle weren't going to start some sort of showdown like in the western. I grabbed the items I said I would and walked back to the others in the walkway.

When I got back, I heard Dinah saying, "I'll be sure to let her know. 'Doubt she'd care at this point, though."

"She better care. It's her job," Uncle Leonard said. Dinah smiled at him, then at me. My chest tightened up again, and I played with the buttons on my coat, taking longer than nessisary to do them up in order keep Dinah from seeing my face. Dinah, too, seemed shy suddenly now that Uncle Leonard wasn't there to distract her from me. She seemed shy as well.

"Hey, are you ready to go?" I nodded. 'I can tell she likes you a lot,' I heard from Uncle Leonard. I turned to him.

"I'll be back by seven at the very latest, and if not, I'll call," I told him, though I doubted I would be gone that long. He nodded, and as the two of us left. I heard, 'If you marry her, I'll kill you. I don't want to be related to Kyle in any way shape or form.' I laughed as I closed the door behind me, and Dinah looked at me with an odd expression. "Sorry" I said, "funny thought." Sensing no lies from me, she gave me her 'you're weird' look, and we continued on towards the Hummer. After we both got in and strapped in, I watched as Dinah started the car and messed with the radio, adjusting the volume, and then she looked at me before making the car leave the curb. At first, the tension in the car was so thick that if you were to try to cut through it with a knife, you'd break the knife.

"Gabby," She said at the same time I started to say her name. We stopped and giggled. "Go ahead." I took in some air.

"Last night, I dreampt of my uncle's memory. He was thinking about me and one night he had tried to convince my parents to tell me the truth about whatever they've been hiding." I thought about the three main adults in my life as they all sat around the picnic tables in New Gotham Park. "I heard them talk about my abilities, and he said, 'I think she has his power.'" I looked at her for a second, then looked at the road in front of us. "I already knew that the metahuman gene was through my father- that wasn't who he was talking about, though, I don't think..."

"Why do you think that?"

"Because my mother said at one point, 'We raised our children together.' Not 'child' as in one, but 'children' as in two..." At this, Dinah looked at me with concern on her face, and I knew that she knew what I was getting at. I stared at the side of my friend's face as she looked back at the road. I was silent for a moment. "I don't know much about this part of me, Dinah, or about the Institute. All I have are the memories of others that I dream of, and the conclusions I can draw drom them." I told her what I did know about the Institute, not caring that I gave everything away. "I didn't want to say anything because-

"You didn't want to explain yourself to us," Dinah said. I smiled.

"That, and I didn't have much to tell, still don't, but from the clues I got, I was able to get this: I have a brother, or I HAD a brother but he died. The only reason why my memory would be blank now is if this brother died when I was five or six, and I saw what had happened and I went into some sort of shock that would have hurt myself or others. I mean, I was very young, and who knows? Maybe I did have them erased at the Institute. My grandfather had in one of the memories said that I had gone to a 'so called doctor', and he could have meant the people there." I looked out the window in front of me, and Dinah thought this over.

"Okay, so if your memory of your brother was erased to help you, then why go back there five years later?"

"I don't know. That does seem weird. I wish I knew. Maybe something happened. I had some sort of relapse or my powers had come to me, and they worked with me then on my powers. My uncle told me last night that I've had my powers before, but I didn't for the last five years at least. That was how my uncle was able to block his own thoughts from me, because he knew about my powers and had learned to keep his thoughts from me when I had them the first time arouns." We were silent and in thought.

"Well, the Institute was a big organization based almost soly on metahuman child developement." I nodded, and Dinah looked at me after the song on the radio ended. I think it was a Heart song aksing if the person they were singing to wanted someone to care about them. "So, you have something you need to discuss with my family and me?" Dinah asked. I nodded.

"I will talk to you all about it at the same time so that I won't have to say it twice. It will be easier." I looked over at her again a few minutes later when I saw that we were driving slowy and carefully on the backroads. It seemed as if Dinah had driven us in a large circle around the city, then was driving us inwards towards the Clocktower. "Hey, speaking of abilities, I've been meaning to ask you some questions about yours." Dinah looked at me then back tro the road, but not before I caught sight of her raised eyebrow.

"Shoot."

"Well, you're a touch telepath, right?"

"Yup, last I checked."

"You've touched me many times over the course of our friendship. We've hugged, thumbwrestled and swatted at eachother when we playfought... Didn't you see anything? At all? I mean, you seemed to not have a clue about my being a metahuman," 'Nor did you know about my feelings for you until yesterday,' I thought.

"Yeah, I saw stuff. When we first touched, all I ever saw was a door. Then later I'd hear whispering, but I could never tell what was said, but always saw the door. It was odd that I saw that from you everytime we touched because I couldn't control my powers. For some reason, it always made me feel safe with you. I guess that was why I ran to you the day my mother came back. I knew you wouldn't know what was going on, but still you'd try to understand, and you did. After the fiasco with Al Hawk- like, that next school day, you'd touched me on accident, and I got images of that night. I mean, it felt like they were bouncing back and forth between us. I wasn't sure if you had gotten them or not or if my powers were evolving or being screwy, but from what you told us yesterday, I know now that you had. Later in that class, I tried to touch you again to see what would happen, but I saw nothing."

"Well-"

"Litterally nothing, Gabby. No childhood memories, no door, nothing. It was as if there was supposed to be something there, but wasn't there anymore, which makes me wonder if your memories were taken from you, not repressed. See, if your memories were repressed, I have a feeling something would have triggered your brain to snap when your powers started to come back. If your powers had reawakened, don't you think your memories of your bother would have as well? So, if they were merely taken from you, then it had to have been a metahuman who had done it. Possibly someone who works- worked for the Institute." I stared at her. 'Works? Does this mean the Institute wasn't destroyed after all?'

"I was hoping somehting a long those lines. Then we could look up this metahuman from that Database to see if they are still in San Diego and I can go to them to get my memories back." Though I was getting excited by the thought that someone most definately had my powers out there, I was also a little scared. Not exactly scared, but worried, really. I didn't know if my parents would want me to get those memories back after they worked so hard to pretend it all didn't happen.

"I don't know, Gabby, I don't have a good feeling about that." Dinah shook her head as she said this. About five minutes after that, which I was silent thinking it all over, we were at the Clocktower, but Dinah didn't slow down or stop until we were about two blocks away from it. There was a garage door that said BLOCKED. It was part of a run down building that looked as if its only visters in the last twenty years were of the long tailed furry kind. Dinah pressed a button I hadn't noticed that was right next to the eject button on the car's radio, and the door opened. We rode along what seemed to be a tunnel, and it dipped sownwards towards the Clocktower. Talk about good parking.

When we came to a stop, we got out and I followed Dinah to an elevator door, where she pressed a button that I hadn't seen until it lit up. The inside looked like a normal everyday elevator, but there were no buttons inside. It was as if there was only one place for the elevator to go, and that was to the top. And a long way it was to the top. When I saw the sight of the inside of the Clocktower though, the long climb seemed worth it. I saw so many monitors, all on, all doing something. Ms. Gordon was typing something at one monitor, then wheeled to the other, not getting lost on which monitor had what information. It was facinating to watch. I wished I could be like that, that organized, that smart, that cool. Ms. Gordon finished typing about eighty words per minutes on the monitor she was at before she wheeled away from it and looked at us. I was still admiring what looked like security monitors over the schools and the large buisnesses. "Man, if you can't do a proper Google search on this baby, then you've paid too much, Ms. Gordon." I said.

"You can call me Barbara, Gabby."

"Not while you're still my teacher, I can't." I told her. She smiled.

"I can respect that," she replied. Helena walked in from the loft, and I watched her walk down the ramp and stand by the Delphi. She briefly read what was on the monitor Ms. Gordon had just left, and then she looked away, obviously not sure what she ahd just read.

"Took you two long enough. What did you do, drive to Maine and back?" Helena, ever the patient one, asked.

"No, we took the scenic route around the city liked we used to do before everything... got messed up. We needed to talk." Dinah replied and I nodded. It was the truth. I looked at Helena and smiled a small smile.

"I'm glad you could make it here," I said.

"I wanted to hear what you had to say about that night. Maybe you've some up with something that none of us had thought about."

"I doubt it. You three are great. I just wanted to make sure you could be here because I think it has to do with you in a way, too. Not personally, but... Well..." I trailed off and decided to start from the beginning and go from there. "I wanted to share my theiry about the night before last that may or may not affect the city again. You sure know how to pick your enemies-"

"We don't 'pick' them," Helena said in a curt tone, "They chose to do bad in this city, just as we chose to protect it and to do good." Her stance was a defencive one, and Dinah put a hand on her arm.

"I'm sorry. That didn't come out right. All I meant was that when someone wants to do some damage, they sure know how to go about doing it."

"What do you mean?" Dinah asked, moving her hand from Helena's arm and standing a little closer to me.

"I was telling you in the Hummer about some of the guesses I had about my past. I have a guess or two about that night as well. A couple of friends of mine, and my uncle were all affected by the craziness that happened that night. I had run across them, except for my uncle, but he had called. My parents, too were affected, but they left the city and couldn't go back to normal when you all made things right again. The thing is, I am asuming you all told people to forget about that night, and they all did, happily going back to their lives, not knowing what they may or may not have done. My friend Kelly and I got into... a fight that night, and I ran into another friend of mine, who thought she was a TV show character. My uncle Leonard was screaming about pixies. And parents went off to Las Vegas and got married again. Yesterday, none of them seemed to remember anything until about last night, which may be why my uncle came to me last night and parents had called me and told me where they were. I got a call from both of my friends today who were apologetic about what was said and done." I tried so hard not to look at Helena with my next sentance, but I knew that Helena would also agree. "They all remembered what had happened, what they did and what they said, so here is what I think: I think that since Harley Quinn had stolen the powers from someone, she hadn't had the time to learn to use them to the extent that the person who originally had them had, if that makes any sense. The man who was born with the abilities might have been able to hold the hypnosis for days, years if he really wanted to. Harley Quin wouldn't have had the time to gain that much control over those powers, so she might have been able to keep her hold on the city for only a full day even if you didn't stop her. Even your countering her damage with a hypnosis of your own didn't last more that twenty four hours. It has been more than that time, and now people everywhere are going to start to remember." I said. I looked at Helena then, and I felt the grief, which was so much stronger than the day before. I wanted to tell her that it wasn't something she had control over, but I doubt she wanted to hear my pitying words, since she didn't know me that well. Plus, she wouldn't have believed me anyway. She wouldn't have even believed Ms. Gordon, and they'd been friends/family for years.

"That makes a lot of sense, actually. I hadn't quite thought of that," my teacher admitted, and I knew she was somewhat embarressed to admit that.

"Not to sound stupid, but how will this affect the whole city, like you said?" My friend seemed lost, though I knew she had an inkling about where this was all going. She wanted to make sure she was right in her own guesses.

"Just think about it, Dinah," Helena started off, "people all over the city went crazy, and who know what all they've done. Close to three hundred people were mysteriously murdered without a motive, and I'm sure not all of those poeple had the same murderer. People who were the muderers ('like me') remember everything. In their crazed minds, they may have had a reason for what they did, but that doesn't mean the blood wasn't already shed." I looked at Ms. Gordon, then back to Dinah as she thought about this.

"Man, this is brutal," Dinah said, and we were still for a while. Helena and Ms. Gordon were thinking about eacher, wondering when they'll ever get to sit down and talk about the last few nights, but neither of them wanted to approach the subject. 'Now, the time to talk is now.' I thought about them both in my line of view and pretended that I had said this to them instead of thought it. I felt my knees give out and I fell; my hands barely caught me in time and kept my face from slamming against the floor. "Gabby! Are you okay?" Dinah knealt beside me and attempted to help me up, but my legs refused to carry my weight. 'Note to self," I thought, "never do that again.' She grabbed my arm and wrapped it around her neck, and to my surprise, Helena was on my other side.

"I'm sorry," I said shakily, not sure what else to say, 'that's never happened to me before." I was a little scared.

"It's happened to me once," Dinah told me in a calm voice that helped me calm myself. I took some deep breaths and listened to her voice in my ear. "I had used my telekinesis to pick up something heavier than what I was used to. You must have done something to over-excert your powers. You'll be fine in a few minutes." My head moved to look at Helena and I let my gaze shift from her to Ms. Gordon. They both looked at me, then at eachother. They got the hint that I had sent the messege to the both of them. I had hoped that since Dinah was touching me she had gotten in on the silent conversation as well. My friend looked at her adopted sister and I felt the static on my right side, and it felt almost like another hand holding me up. "I've got her, Helena."

"Sure?"

"Yeah, I'm sure. Come on, Sweetie."

As we walked up the ramp, or rather, as Dinah halfway dragged me up the ramp, I heard, "If what Gabby says is true, then you must remember... everything. I can't begin to imagine what that must be doing to you..." We entered what I assumed was Dinah's bedroom. There was a twin sized bed with light blue sheets and a stars/moon comforter and pillowcases that matched the sheets. There was a small bed-side table that had a lamp, a small notebook, an alarm clock, three pens, and a black scrunchy. She had a desk, small, but it looked as it it served its purpose, as there were two large text books out, one open to about the halfway mark. There was a framed picture of a blonde woman in her late twenties, early thirties at the oldest, with her arm around the neck of a gorilla statue at the zoo as if she was wrestling it, and standing on the other side of the gorilla was a girl about five years old, laughing. I knew this was Dinah and her mother, but to be honest, I couldn't see too much of a resemblance other than the blonde hair. Like me, she must take more after her father, who/wherever he may be. I noticed that the glass on the frame was shattered. What happened to it? Did she drop it? Did she throw somehting at it with her telekinesis? Did someone come into her room when the Clocktower was invaded and destroy it? I wondered who had taken the photo. Was it her father? Ms. Gordon? Some stranger at the zoo?

Dinah sat me on her bed and pulled her chair over so that when she sat in it we were face to face. I looked briefly at the picture again, noting that the girl in the picture was so much different from the girl in front of me. "Gabby," I looked up at her, seeing concern in her eyes. "I want to tell you something that not even Barbara or Helena know. I'd wait for another time since you're in this state and you've already got a lot to digest, but I think it'll help you control your powers. You see... I don't think my powers started when I was nine. That was just when the dream of Helena and Barbara came to me, and so that is just when I told them it had. Before that, the dreams I had were fuzzy, blurry, but I could still feel the presense of who was there. It was like my version of the whispers and humming you experienced when your powers started to show." I nodded.

"I have dreams like that sometimes," I said, and Dinah smiled before continuing.

"I taught myself to picture my my powers as something else and use that item to determine whether or not I want to have those dreams. I did this not long after I had dreams of Helena and Barbara. I kept dreaming of them, night after night. I saw Helena in the hospital, waiting for Barbara to wake up, her hands loosly folded on her knees and her head down, hoping and pleading for Barbara to regain consiousness. I dreampt of Barbara going in for a surgery and telling Helena that she will wake up and be okay... I didn't like the dreams because I didn't know who these women were or where I could find them. Everytime I would dream of them, I longed to be with them. So much, sometimes, that I cried for hours. They don't even know about that first dream that brought me to New Gotham. They don't know that I went looking for them. They were the family I told you I was looking for after the fight with my foster parents." I watched her, and she stared at me. "I was hoping that I could help you control your powers enough to strengthen them so that this," she motioned my legs, "won't happen again. And you won't having people's thoughts chattering constantly in your head."

"I can't help it, and I don't like it. It feels like an invasion of privacy. I feel guilty everytime I hear something I am not supposed to." I looked down. I couldn't help but think about the thoughts of the people at the high school as I cleaned up. I didn't like seeing that so many people were afraid and I could feel it just as much as they could. Suddenly Dinah's hand touched my cheek, then the hand moved down under my chin, gently forcing me to look at her. Without saying a word, I heard, 'Would you like me to help you change that?' "More than ever," I said, too afraid to answer with my mind. I wasn't sure if that would make things worse or not.

Dinah's mind started to race- not as quickly as Ms. Gordon's, but fast enough. She touched my hand, and I felt her presense in my head. I am not sure what she would see, since the last time she saw into my head and I wasn't thinking about a door, she saw her own thoughts bounced back at her. Dinah never did learn how to control when she saw into people's minds when she touched them, which was why she had reacted to me that first day the way she had. As for the dreams, she knew to control them, so she rarely had them anymore. She admitted in her mind that the dreams scared her. I didn't blame her. Sometimes the dreams/memories worried me too. When she wanted to go into someone's mind on purpose, however, she would imagine her mind as her hand, and someone else's mind as a box, a pretty box her mother once owned when Dinah lived with her, and Dinah had always loved it. The box had a latch on it, and if she wanted to see within someone, she would open the latch, but sometimes, I guess, that latch was always open on some people and she could always see inside them. If she is used to being around someone, say Helena, Ms. Gordon or myself, she forces the latch to shut, but it doesn't always stay shut. "Yours is a box, mine is a door." I said. Dinah nodded, relieved I understood. I saw Dinah's white box close and I no longer felt her presense in my head.

She smiled affectionately at me, her eyes glittering as they had in my fantasy the night before. How I wanted to take possession of her lips then, grab her body and force it on top of me as our tounges danced together in an erotic tango. I realized then that I'd been reading too many lesbian romance novels. "Close your eyes," she said then, "and concentrate on my voice." In her mind, I heard my favorite song, 'A Song For A Winter's Night' by Sarah McLaughlin. How approproate it was, considering how I felt for Dinah and the fact that the snow was actually falling slightly when we were out on the road. The song was thought so loud that anything else in her mind was drowned out. "You hear the song, don't you?" I nodded.

"I'm surprised you know as much of the song as you do," I said to her.

"I have the CD it's on," She replied. "Now shush and concentrate on the song for a minute, then imagine your door." It had a nice ring to it, 'my door' did, and I felt almost possessive as if it were a toy I didn't want to share with the other kids. Not that it was something anyone could take from me, but it gave me something I could take control of. This door, my door, my abilities. I may not have my memories, but I have this ability, and I wanted to appretiate what I had. I nodded with my eyes still closed, and heard the song clearly before I saw my door come into view behind my eyelids. Before she said anything, I knew what she wanted of me, and I imagined myself reaching out for the my door, pulling the door handle it towards me as it closed, but not latching. I was afraid that if I latched it shut, the door would lock again from the inside and the my abilities would fade back into whispers and murmurs. Though I hated imposing on other people's thoughts, I like sending thoughts out to people. Maybe that part of my abilities could someday save someone, another- a real jumper. "Close the door, Gabby," Dinah said softly, though it still made me jump. I didn't know what to do. I kept my hand on the door, not wanting to do anything else with it. It was safe, closed only this much. Closing the door this far proved I had control of my abilities, and I won't lose them. I was willing to compromise. "Close it all the way, Gabby." Dinah urged as in my mind the song faded, but I could still hear some of the harmonies of the song. "I promise it is okay. Close the door." I concentrated on the image of my hand and closed the door completely, hearing it click shut. The song was gone.

My mind felt somewhat fuzzy, almost as it felt whenever I was passing a lou sound and then going into silence. My ears felt as if they were ringing. I did it. I can control this. The people at the Insitute may have my memories, but they don't have my abilities. I do, and I have control now. It felt so great. Of course, I knew that was only the beginning of it, but blocking out thoughts whenever made me feel incredible. I could let people think what they wanted. I didn't need to know all of their dirty little secrets. I sighed in relief.

Suddenly there was a warmth upon my lips, warmth form her sweet lips. My eyes shot open in surprise as my mind registered the fact that Dinah was kissing me. Then I shut my eyes again, concentrating instead on the feel of her lips. I felt nothing from her, but I wanted to. Was she, too, surprised by this bold move? Had she been waiting long to make it, or was it a spur of the moment thing for her? As my left hand palmed the side of her neck and my fingers curled around to the back of it, I felt Dinah shiver, and I felt victorious knowing I made her feel that way. Our kiss, though nice, was a little sloppy and a lot of guess work, but it wasn't like I had anything to comapre it to, my last and only kiss before her being a peck on the lips that had lasted only a fraction of a second before Miranda backed away and slapped me. I am not sure if Dinah ever kissed anyone before me, but it seemed as if the answer to that was no. There was no way I was going to embaress myself by attempting to use my tounge, so I stuck to the basics of kissing, and Dinah wasn't in a hurry to change that. It was still enjoyable in its own way. I wanted to know what she was thinking. She had an unfair advantage as I felt her in my head for a brief moment. She was touching me, so she knew that I was almost melting under her tounch. Was I doing something wrong? Was I doing something right? Is she okay with this, even though she had initiated the kiss? Did this mean she was saying yes? To us? I pictured myself opening the door again only a crack, hoping that whatever I heard would be faint. '...DOING? This is wrong.'

To her, it wasn't wrong as in 'I'm kissing a girl, it's a sin and I'm going to Hell now'. No, to her it was wrong as in 'I just told her no and now I'm kissing her and confusing her'. It was enough to make me loosen my grip on the back of her neck and force myself to end the kiss, as much as my whole body didn't want to. Dinah stood up and walked to the other side of her room as if she'd been burned. "I'm sorry Gabby-"

"Are you?" I asked looked at her, trying in vain to reign in the hurt in my voice.

"No- Yes- I mean-" Dinah took a deep breath. "I don't regrett that I kissed you. I regret that I kissed you and still say we can't. I don't want to mislead you." I didn't know what I wanted to say. I couldn't seem to open my mouth to speak. Finally, when I could open my mouth, I felt as if there was no air leaving my throat.

After a minute of silence I said, "I would gladly stand by your side- I would anyway no matter what- I just can't seem to walk away from you- I would gladly stand by your side and wait for the day you'd turn to me and say 'yes Gabby'... But if you're so sure that the answer would always be no..." My voice lowered at the painful thought, and I swallowed, "then I wouldn't be able to handle it if you were to kiss me again."

"I'm sorry, Gabby. I really am," Dinah said again. Slowly I test my legs to see if they would hold my body as I shood. 'So far so good,' I thought as I stood and felt sturdy.

"You know, I think you should take me home."

"No, please don't go Gabby," Dinah said as she turned to me, a plea was evident there. "I wish you could understand-"

"I do understand. That's the thing. We have so much in common now, and the attraction between us is so strong it could only make sense to be together. I understand that you're trying to protect me by not being with me. I get it. I do, but this hurts," I said, empasizing the last two words.

"Yes, I know," Dinah said quietly, "but it has to be this way. Yes, we have a lot on common. You're right about that. We're both telepathic metahumans, we've got shady if not dark pasts, hell we're both blonde haired, blue eyes beauties who are smart enough to rise above the stereotype, but we have one difference that is the most important to me: you don't risk your life for the city like I do, Gabby. You don't make dangerous enemies. Your life, compared to mine, is peaceful, and I'd like to keep it that way."

"I guess you and my parents both," I muttered, knowing that she'd hear me. "Now look at it. I think, if possible, it has gotten worse because they tried so hard to make it all go away. This, too, will backfire on us. Look, I don't want to argue with you about it. I know I can't win this, anyway. I understand why you're doing this. I think every hero in history has done the whole 'I love you but can't be with you to protect us both' routine."

"The fact that we can't be together doesn't change how I feel about you," Dinah said, her voice low and almost in a whisper. I knew how she felt about me. I knew because even without my abilities, I could see it in her eyes just then. I didn't say anything, but my mind was screaming at her, telling her that our feelings for eachother were useless if nothing can be done about them. That they would just be a waste of time and space within us. I didn't want to be with anyone else, but I didn't want to feel this loneliness, either. Dinah didn't want our relationship to be strained like this, but she didn't want to watch me die, as she knew she eventually would. We were stuck.


	22. Chapter 21: Delphi

**Chapter Twenty One**

**Delphi**

Dinah and I stood there staring at each other not unlike the way we had the day before. This was interesting to me. I'd already said what I wanted to say, and I waited for something else to come up, something else for us to rip apart and analyze away. Nothing came up. I couldn't seem to make my exit. Partially because I was right in the fact that I couldn't seem to walk away form Dinah, and partially because she was my ride and it would be a long walk home. I wanted to escape, get out of this uncomfortable situation, but what would running have done? If I went down to the Delphi computers, I would be interrupting whatever talk Helena and Ms. Gordon were having, and I couldn't do that. Not when they needed to talk like they did. Suddenly Dinah asked, "So... You said that your parents called?" Okay, change of subject. I can play that game. I nodded. "Where were they?"

"Las Vegas," When my friend's eyebrows shot up, I smiled. "That's what I said." I looked at the alarm clock. It said it was nearing one in the afternoon.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I don't know. You were at my porch looking almost the same as you had when your mother came back and my abilities started to show. I forgot," I lied. I didn't forget, but where in a 'break up' scene do you casually mention that your parents are missing?

"So you were there in the middle of all that madness, your uncle was babbling about pixies, your parents were gone, someone thought you were Madonna, and the one who claimed to be your best friend walks away from you. You must have felt so alone." I did, but it was over, and I told her as much.

"Well, sure, but things got better when we patched things up yesterday and Uncle Leonard got to my house." Still, I knew she felt bad for not being there when she felt I needed her the most. I shrugged. "Either way, nothing can be done about it now. Just- don't do it again, I guess." That earned me a small chuckle, and I smiled in return. There was a knock on Dinah's bedroom door, and after Dinah hollered for the person on the other side, no doubt Ms. Gordon, to enter, then door opened.

"May I borrow Gabby for a few minutes?" Dinah nodded, and I followed my teacher out of Dinah's room. Ms. Gordon told my friend that it would have only taken about fifteen minutes tops. We went down the ramp together in silence until we got to the Delphi computers where I watched the activities on each monitors. I felt I could watch them all day and understood why Barbara seemed to be glued to them all the time. I would have been, too if I were her, especially after what had happened. Ms. Gordon motioned for me to sit down in a lonely computer chair that seemed to only be used when Dinah or Helena were looking up something, which was a rare occurrence, as Ms. Gordon didn't want them, especially Dinah, who didn't know the ins and outs of the Delphi yet, near it. The poor chair was cast way off to the far edge of the system. I sat down and stared at the monitor nearest to the chair, which had snowfall and the entrance to a whole in the wall type of shop called No Man's Land Collectables. If I remember right, it was a shop owned by a friend of Helena's from high school, but there was something special about the shop, something I had forgotten. "Are you alright?" I was pulled from my thoughts by this question. I nodded slowly, looking from the monitor to her.

"Yeah. Dinah said I'd over excreted myself by using my abilities past their limits." Ms. Gordon nodded, bit I knew she wasn't just asking about that. Did she sense something from me? Could she see how shaken up the kiss had left me? She watched me for a second, and I eventually looked away from her green eyes back to the monitor. We were quiet for a moment, and I felt from Barbara that she was trying to figure out how to say something, but as usual, her mind was racing so fast, I couldn't grasp onto a single thought long enough to understand what that thought was. It was like they flashed about in bits and pieces at a lightning rate, only to be put together later if you were to understand the sequence.

"Remember when you were saying that you thought Dinah was the reason for some of the changes in you powers?" I nodded. "I've been thinking about it allot since yesterday and I think you're right. Dinah's not the best at keeping her powers under control when her emotions are high. So of course when she ran to you, she was feeling the hurt and betrayal of her mother."

" 'Abandoned' was one of the first words I heard from her," I said., and Ms. Gordon nodded this time.

"I'd assume the part of your mind that had locked your powers away must have recognized what the static was, and it must have been stimulated enough by it to allow you to hear voices and feel emotions."

"Just like that?" I asked.

"Not everything in life- in 'the life' is complicated. As humans- and metahumans, we have a tendency to make it so. Dinah's powers radiated outside of her body awakened your power, 'just like that'. Of course, other things could have easily factored in, but that seems to be what it all boils down to."

"That makes sense. And the fact that we are both telepaths, I would assume that played a part in why it was so easy to hear things from Dinah, or it was easier to hear some things from Dinah at first than anyone else."

"Could be." I looked around, not hearing anything else. I didn't feel Helena's thoughts or grief. I felt Dinah's regret and confusion, and more than that, hunger, but I tried my best to block that out. I felt Barbara's slight concern, the pain of the last few days, and something else that didn't quite belong within her considering the moment- curiosity.

"Hey, where is Helena?" I asked.

"She didn't want to talk. She wasn't ready," Barbara said in a small voice if I ever did hear one.

"She wasn't ready to forgive herself," I countered, and I watched as Ms. looked away, lost in thought. This time, I didn't try to keep up. If I wanted to, I could just close my door. As it was, it was open slightly, so I heard the thoughts still, but like the humming if I wanted to, I could tune them out. "I'll bet it's hard. I can't imagine what it's like for her right now," I murmured, looking at the clock face, covered in black plastic covering.

"I can't either. It's going to take some time." She looked at me square in the eye, and she watched me for a second before adding 'for all of us." It was another one of those statements that had a hidden, deeper meaning if the look in her eyes has anything to do with it. Did that include me? I thought. Of course it does, my mind countered. Why else would she have looked at me like that if it didn't. Finally, she asked, "Will you be okay?"

"I'm still here," I said, thinking more about Dinah than the fact that I was still in one piece and in fact okay.

"Yes, you are. Thank you," I felt that she too was thinking of Dinah. She was talking about the things she'd said that week Dinah wasn't in school after her mother died. She was right, too. Things definitely got worse before they even thought about getting any better, but hopefully I w as there for her when she needed someone the most. Hopefully I will continue to be there for her no matter how complicated our friendship got. "You'll let me know if that changes?" Ms. Gordon surprised me by asking.

"It won't," I didn't mean for my tone to be clipped. I didn't mean to show that I had taken any offence to that sincere question, but I actually had. It felt as if she thought I was just going to leave when things got hard, but things were already hard. As if I had passed some sort of test, Ms. Gordon smiled at me, though it didn't reach her eyes. I understood then what Dinah had meant about her eyes 'making jewelry jealous'. I remembered earlier in the semester when she would smile at the students, myself included. This smile was so much dimmer than those, and I wondered, as Dinah must have, if anyone would ever see that smile again from her.

"Good," she said, almost absently. We were in silence after that when a couple of minutes later there was a slow low toned beeping noise at the Delphi, which sounded almost like a dying battery. Ms. Gordon wheeled over to one of the monitors. She didn't seem worried, but I was a little bit nervous that it might have been some of the people who'd gone mad enough to kill someone possibly causing more problems now that they knew everything.

"Is everything okay?" I asked. She didn't answer me at first as she typed in commands in that looked like HTML, but at my angle of where she was, I couldn't quite read it even if I did know the code. Then she turned to look at me. She studied me again, then smiled before waving me over. I stood up and slowly approached, not sure why I felt something big was about to happen.

"Yes, everything is fine now. I've been downloading security programs from the computers of the New Gorham PD. The last time I had done this, I almost got caught, but they couldn't tell where the hack had come from until after I was done and disconnected from their system. Now, I am undetected. Anyway, this program has been updated, so if anything bats an eye around here or in Bludhavem I'll know about it."

"That is so cool in a creepy stalker sort of way," I told her, and she laughed.

"Yes, well... This creepy stalker keeps the city safe, or at least I used to..."

"You still do, and when this water under the bridge settles, you will," I assured her, but she shook her head. I looked away when she didn't say anything, but felt her eyes on me. I wanted to scream at her 'WHAT? Do I have a zit that I don't know about?', but I respected Ms. Gordon too much to actually say that to her. I just wish I wasn't under her microscope. I looked from my shoes to the computer. "So... what does this program do? Are there, like, cameras and motion sensors that are hooked into the main computers at the police station- and the Delphi, that would set off an alarm or something? 'Cause that would be so cool."

"You're almost dead on, only it's not just security cameras and motion detector. It's walkie talkies, any sort of radio wave some computer systems in large businesses, what have you." My eyebrows rose in surprise.

"Anyone who acts up now is going down." I said. Ms. Gordon seemed glad to seem y enthusiasm. "No one can use the other night as an excuse to get off on a temporary insanity plea, can they?" I asked her, trying to read anything on the computer monitor, but only saw numbers and symbols meshed together in a way that would never make sense to me.

"I doubt it. Anyone who confesses to what they've done will get jail time, I'm sure, but because of how many there are, I doubt they'd stay there for long. It's get crowded quickly. This program will have a watchful eye on them, and can decipher if they acted normally before and after the crime." I nodded, trying to follow her.

"So, you can't do anything about that night, huh?"

"Nothing more than to watch the surveillance cameras that we have of their whereabouts. If we have that feed, that would be the only thing that would prove their case, but other than that, nothing can really be done about that right now." I nodded.

"That's good, I guess. Who knows what would hit the fan if they could just say, 'oops, I was insane, must have been in the water'..." Barbara smiled at my sarcastic impersonation of a criminal. Dinah slowly walked to the ramp and looked down at us.

"You ready to go, or..." She looked from me to Ms. Gordon to me again with a question in her eyes. Though my door was open, I couldn't read what she was thinking. I felt the hesitation and nervousness, though. She was wondering if we were done talking. Something told me we weren't, that Ms. Gordon had more to discuss with me, but she waved me off.

"Yeah," I said, "I'm ready." I looked back at Ms. Gordon. "Good luck with your program," I said, and she smiled at that.

"Thanks, but I'm not sure I'll need it."

"Just in case... See ya'," I said.

"Bye Gabby." I followed Dinah to the elevators, stealing another glance at my teacher, who was glued to the screen.

"So what did you talk about?" Dinah asked nervously, her hands fidgeting with the frayed strings on her sweater.

"You. Apparently out of curiosity, Ms. Gordon went looking for your records when you first got here to New Gorham and found some records and some elementary school pictures, which she shared with me." Dinah's eyes went wide as she pushed the button for the basement level.

"She didn't!" Dinah said in almost a gasp, and I couldn't help the laughter that escaped me.

"No, she didn't-" I got a swat on the arm as my shoulders shook with my laughter.

"You brat!" I continued to laugh, as Dinah crossed her arms and waited for me to calm down.

"Seriously," I said after a moment, "it was sort of confusing. Half of the time, I wasn't sure what we were talking about. Sometimes it would be about one subject, or so I thought, but then she'd say something that makes me think she was talking about everything."

"That's Barbara for you."

"Yeah. Other than that, she was showing me a little bit of the program thing she'd be downloading, which I think it way cool," I said. We reached the Hummer, and as Dinah turned the radio down from when it was blasted before on the way over, I looked at the clock on it. It was about half past one.

"I'm sure you did. Don't get too lost in the enigma that is Barbara. A lot of her facade is pretending she knows everything, and though she knows a lot more than most people, nobody knows everything." I didn't say anything, but nodded in my agreement. "So... that movie theater by the mall is due to re-open next week... You want to see something? With me?" The way she asked was nervous, almost as if- 'No, I can't get my hopes up. She's already said no, and after that kiss... well, it is obvious that her answer is still no,' I thought.

"Sure," I said, keeping my voice neutral. "I'm sure by then things will be cool at home, too." Why was I speaking to her as if I was speaking about the weather? It was snowing a little harder, by the way, so Dinah took me straight home before we got stuck somewhere, though I doubted the Hummer could get stuck anywhere.

"I'll call you," Dinah said before I got out of the Hummer. I nodded.

"I look forward to it." As Dinah drove off, I heard the door open, and saw Uncle Leonard, who immediately started to resemble a mother hen as he waved his arm, gesturing for me to get in the house as if he was afraid of snow.

"You're going to freeze to death. Get inside. Your parents just called from the airport in Vegas. They're on their way home. I just hope the snow can hold off long enough to let them land." I nodded again, feeling as if my neck would snap and my head would roll to the side with all the nodding I have done in the last hour alone. I walked into the house after stamping my boots against the outer wall of the house.


	23. Chapter 22: Rewind

Chapter Twenty Two  
Rewind 

*Short, but neccisary. ~Erin* 

I wished, as I sat on the couch watching TV, that I could be like Anastasia. You know, that movie that came out about eight years ago about the Russian

tzar's family, the Romanoffs. The family was all killed except for, apperently, the youngest daughter, who had lost her memory and was taken to an

orphanage. Well, I was watching the movie, which was what had made me think of this. Unlike her though, I have to go to some mad scientist for my memories,  
whereas Anastasia got a couple of hers from a musicbox. I wish there was an item somewhere, hidden in my parents' bedroom perhaps, that I could just pick up

and BOOM, all of my past comes back. Of course, there wouldn't be. I'm sure I would have seen or felt or smelled something that would have brought more than just

a familiar feeling to me whenever I experiance it. Thinking back, I know there was a lot of things that felt almost like deja vu or familar to me, even if I was sure it had

never happened to me, but they never brought any sort of memory. (Hell, I didn't even know something was amiss untill a couple of months ago.) For example, when I

first got into Janet Jackson, I could have sworn I knew all of the dance steps or had made up my own dance steps to songs of Rhythm Nation, even though that  
was the first time (that I knew of at the time) of seeing the music video. 

I wondered if the death of my brother was why I was so afraid of water. Maybe I was always afraid of water, even before he died. I wanted to know what his

name was, and if we fought a lot. I wondered if I was even correct in the assumtion that I had a brother to begin with. After the movie was over, I slowly got off of the  
couch as to not disturb 'Sleeping Uncle Leonard', and went into my room. I had much to add to my timeline on my computer and felt I should have gotten it done

before I forgot any of it . Part of me worried that something might happen and whatever I have been given as a memory the past five years will be erased, but I knew that

was silly.

Sometimes it still amazed me that the legend of Batman, something I heard here and there throughout the time I lived in New Gotham, were actually real. I

always thought that Batman was just a myth, so learning that he was real, as were the other heroes everyone claimed to be saved by, was amazing to me. The city was  
lucky to have these people watch over them, and like Batman and Batgirl/Oracle, half of them didn't even have a metahuman ability to protect them, just their brains and

their courage. That was what was so strange to me though, this whole thing with Batman. I mean, from someone looking in on the whole thing, they would assume that

he was just some rich guy with too much money to do anything with, so he used it to create a secret identity. He was much more than that, but I swear, I admire the guy.

He had no sheild to protect him with, but still he did it, at first for revenge for his parents, then out of justice to the people. It amazes me though that after all he's fought,

and after all that courgage he needed to fight it, he had to run away from the city (sorry for the pun) like a bat out of hell.

As I sat down and turned my computer back on, I felt my mind go through everything that had happened, ending with Dinah's kiss and the conversation I had with Ms.

Gordon. Since when did I star in 'Days of Our Metahuman Lives'? Or no, it was starring Barbara Gordon, Helena Kyle, Dinah Lance-Redmond, and introducing Gabby

Andrews. I wish I knew what Dinah wanted from me. I don't think there is an in between road for friendship and lovers, and if there was one, I doubt I'd want to travel along

it, anyway. I had no choice but to go back to my original plan to wait this out and hope my feelings go away. I know my heart wasn't planning on doing that. Not since

DInah had told me loved me, too.

After the computer loaded completely and I was staring at my desktop, I clicked on the untitled document, reread what I had on it so far, then added: 

**Tuesday December 1, 2002**- Woke up to silence. No buzzing or anything until I got to the school. Heard thoughts from far away. Heard Helena's thoughts. Dinah and

Helena are metahuman, people like me with abilities. Dinah's a touch telepath and telekinetic, and Helena has catlike abilities. Heard Dinah say 'I love you' later, used my  
mind to say 'I love you too'. Called for Uncle Leonard to call me, and he came to the house. It made me weak. Dreamed Dinah's memory of fighting for her home

**Wednesday December 2, 2002**- Dreamed Uncle Leonard's memory set in New Gotham Park. I have a sibling (?) A brother perhaps (?) Kelly came by to apologise. Her

metahuman abilities aren't genetic. Gina called, her metahuman abilities are genetic, was born with her wings, and her mother is a metahuman as well. Kelly says guy who

hurt her (Chris), Mr. Fangi (our freshman year math teacher), Mr. Werner are all metahumans. Told Ms. Gordon, Dinah and Helena about my guesses on Harleen

Quinzell's stolen abilities. They agree. Used my abilities to talk to both Ms. Gordon and Helena at the same time. Made my legs give out. Dinah taught me a trick she

used to control her abilitites and now I can control when I hear the thoughts. Keeping my door open only a crack. 

After I typed that up, I checked my email (but there was nothing more than spam), and then I read a few chapters of a novel length Xena uber story, which helped keep my

mind off of things. I was on chapter seven when there was a short knock, followed by Uncle Leonard's head poking in. "Hey, I went to the store for some more food while

you were out. Had a friend pick me up. Anyway, I saw this at the drug store and thought you'd like to play." I looked at the item he held up, and it looked like a deck of

cards. On the box it said Uno. I have seen the commercials and I had played with Kelly once a long time ago, but then she lost a bunch of the cards or they got bent, so I

hadn't played for a long time. "I think you've played this before. Can you teach me?"

"Sure. It isn't much different from Crazy Eights. Let me save this, and I will be right there." I looked at Uncle Leonard's face, and he seemed almost like a child. Why

he had the sudden urge to play Uno was beyond me, but I thought it would be fun, and I could spend some time with my old Uncle Leonard. I did as I said I would and

added the web address so that I could get back to the story later, then turned off my monitor.


	24. Chapter 23: Return

**Chapter Twenty Three**

**Return**

Fortunately for my parents, the snow that fell when Dinah had dropped me off stopped after about an hour and melted slightly. I played a good ten rounds of UNO with Uncle Leonard, and got this feeling of glee from him. I was surprised when I lost seven out of ten of those games. Of course, he tricked me by claiming he was a beginner and didn't know how to play and leading me on by letting me win the first round, then beating me five times in a row. After our UNO-athon, we watched TV, some crime show. I'd lost interest in the first few minutes, but zoned in and out at the good plot points. When the show was five minutes to being over, the phone rang. I jumped up faster than if a bee had stung me in the ass to go answer it. My mother sounded happy to hear from me, but exhausted by the flight. "I'm just calling to say we've landed and we shouldn't be more than an hour and a half give or take the traffic in the snow."

"How was your flight?"

"More turbulence than I was comfortable with, but we'll talk about all of that when we get there. We'll see you in a bit."

"Okay. Bye Mom, I love you."

"You know I love you too. Bye Sweetie." I hung up feeling like a kid. I really did. As far as I could remember, I hadn't been away from them that long, and it was weird to me. My uncle and I spent that hour watching another crime show and I watched it all the way through because the main suspect was a well known vigilante' who thought it was in his right to kill this guy who had raped this girl in the streets. Turned out that it was not the vigilante', but some other chick, his step sister or something, who he was taking the fall for. He still had to be locked away for the two or three other murders he claimed were just. The whole episode reminded me of my friends in the Clocktower, and I wondered if the snowy weather was enough to keep the bad guys inside for the night. I imagined Dinah and Ms. Gordon at their little kitchen area with mugs of tea while Helena looked in the cupboard for some animal cookies or some other tasty treat she'd stashed away, sending Dinah a look of death just in case my friend had filched them. I smiled at that thought, then wondered what a family night was like for them. Did they rent movies (or stream them over the Delphi) to watch? Did they have their family time during dinner?

When the door to the house opened almost forty-five minutes later, I shook the thoughts away. Both Uncle Leonard and I got up to greet them with the thought of 'that was quicker than we all thought', Leonard grabbing my mother's bag (which was new and probably bought in Vegas) and hugged her, while I hugged my dad. "I missed you both so much," I said, close to tears. I was almost shaking with relief.

"We missed you too Sweetheart," my dad said. Then I hugged my mother, who brushed hair behind my ear and seemed to see me for the first time. She smiled at me and a tear fell down her cheek. Seeing her cry made what tears I tried to fight back fall.

"You're becoming a very beautiful woman, Gabrielle," she said, pulling me towards her again. The tears continued to stream down my face. It was physical proof that they were in fact okay. I looked over my mother's shoulder at my father, who nodded and smiled his small smile in agreement.

"Thank you," I whispered, to who, I wasn't sure, but I was grateful to them all. My mother backed away, and Uncle Leonard cleared his throat.

"We have so much to talk about."

"Is it about..." I was afraid to say the exact words I wanted to say, so I chose instead, "the past?" I looked down.

"Yes," my father said, his voice as soft as mine.

"Uncle Leonard, will you stay?" I asked, which I am sure surprised everyone, if I'd read their looks correctly. I felt I needed them all there to tell me what happened. He looked to my parents again, who nodded at him before he nodded as well. Then he went to the kitchen and made sandwiches and filled up the water pitcher. I joined him and got four glasses and plates out and put them on the table. My uncle nodded his head towards the living room and I set them on the coffee table instead. After the sandwiches were eaten, and after Uncle Leonard had refilled the water pitcher for the second time, there was silence. My parents looked at me, but I had closed my door a few minutes after they said they had much to discuss with me. I wasn't sure why I did, really. I was afraid to see the exact images of whatever it was that had happened to me. I didn't want to hear what I wasn't supposed to. I wanted to prove to myself that their word would be enough, and that I trusted them enough to tell me everything. I could tell that my parents were trying to find the strength to talk to me.

My mother finally looked at me, her eyes deep, seeming to find my secrets within me, and she shook her head. "I don't know where to begin."

"Well, maybe..." I said, taking a deep breath, "maybe I should start. I can... tell you what I know and you can fill in the rest?" I asked. I almost regretted asking, they went so still, but after an exchange between them, my parents both nodded. I sighed, feeling more relief, then I told them all I could without naming anyone but those present at the time and my grandparents. When I was done speaking, they seemed at a loss for a reply. I could tell they were surprised by how much I actually knew, but only through stringing bits and pieces together. Once I had told them that I had leaned to use my powers only when I wanted to, and that I preferred to keep it closed because I didn't want to see more than I had to, Uncle Leonard seemed more comfortable around me. I saw stiff shoulders relax instantly after I'd said that. "I wish the Institute wasn't destroyed," I said.

"What? Destroyed?" My mother asked, looking baffled. "Was the branch in Bludhaven destroyed when the city... went crazy?"

"I heard it- the entire organization was destroyed." I said, mimicking my mother's look. Maybe it was then someone could say we looked alike.

"No, there are branches all over the US, and who knows? Possibly in other countries too," my father said, and my gaze went to him. "Only one branch of the Institute is gone now, and that was the one you had gone to, but that will all be explained." My parents exchanged another look while I thought about this. Why would Ms. Gordon lie? Did she know about there being more than one branch? She had to. How else would her Metahuman Database get to be so big? She's certainly not stupid. Did she think I was? Did Dinah and Helena know that Ms. Gordon was lying to me when she told me it was destroyed? Why would they go along with that lie? When my father spoke again, I forced my hurt feelings away, and focused on his words. "I might as well continue, since I'm already on a role. I guess... everything began really the day I was born, but I won't go into that. It was when I had gone off to college that the story- our story picked up.

"I've always been in love with the water as a kid. Anything that had to do with water- swimming, surfing, water sports- I did it all. I was a swimming champion in high school, which was how I got my scholarship to UCLA. When classes got a little rough, I noticed odd things would happen, mostly when I went to the pool. The water would seem to ripple and make waves even if I hadn't put any limbs in yet. No one else would be there. In the shower, I'd see water part in two directions, and on my really stressful days, it would flow around by body, but never touch, even when I moved my arms and legs to try and reach it. I never told anyone about it, but in my third year, I met your mother, and I fell madly in love." At this, he looked at my mother, who blushed. It made me wonder why Uncle Leonard seemed to think they weren't still in love with each other. I saw it even then, and looking at Leonard, he seemed surprised as well. Maybe he didn't know. Or maybe he did, and when they went to Vegas and got married again, it all changed, and they realized (after agreeing to tell me everything) that they did love each other, and that whatever happened shouldn't change that. "I brought her over to meet my parents, and we were both so nervous. Your grandmother was always a little overprotective of me, being an only child, and she never approved of some of my previous dates. No need to worry, my mother loved her the moment they met, and everything was good. Until the conversation turned to majors in college and what I was planning, which I still wasn't sure then. I got anxious, and suddenly the water in everyone's glass- including the ice- floated out of the cup, and stayed in a sort of orb above the table. It scared me, knowing that I had done that, and it was then that your grandma told me. She'd always known that this strange gene would pass to me but didn't know when I would show the signs of it."

My uncle leaned forward and tapped my knee with a smirk on his face. "Sound familiar?" He got a small slap from my mother, who was right next to him.

"Hush. Go on, Jason."

"I was sure that your mother would run away screaming, but she told me calmly as she held me later that she'd just found out not long before that that her brother's new boyfriend could produce and manipulate electrical currants from his hands. He had just told Leonard about it." My father looked at my uncle. "You sure you want me telling her about this, man?"

"I won't be able to, and she needs to know everything now." My father nodded.

"Mark worked for an upcoming organization for metahumans, a new term then given to us by some organization or another claiming we were dangerous and so on. Mark wanted a PhD in child medicine but his main interest was always anything dealing with metahumans. Anyway, we all graduated, your mom and I moved in together, got married, and almost two years after the honeymoon, we had our first child... A boy..." He tried to swallow the imaginary bricks in his throat, but couldn't seem to continue.

"Avery Jason Andrews," my mother said, continuing for him. "You were right when you assumed you had a brother. Avery was constantly moving; even before he was born, he would kick and punch and move about. As a baby and toddler, he would get into everything, even more than some of the other kids we'd been around. That changed when he was about three weeks away from turning four. That was when you were born. When Avery first saw you, I think it was love at first sight. He'd set it upon himself to make sure we were taking care of you correctly. We knew as well as your grandmother did that you were both going to end up with the metahuman gene, but what surprised us was how quickly Avery's power had showed up. One night, Avery came into the room telling us that you needed us. He wouldn't say why, or maybe he didn't know exactly why, but right as we got to your crib you had started to cry. Then he just said for us to hold you, and you would be okay, so we did, and sure enough, you were back to sleeping within a minute or two. He was so in tune to your emotions, and sometimes ours as well, but he read you the best. You did everything together. As soon as you could talk, his name was your first word that wasn't just baby babble."

"It was?" I asked, surprised. I was told it was 'Da-duh'.

"Well, 'Avie' was. That was what we called him from then on, and he didn't mind it. I remember Avery's first day of school. You cried all day, and I didn't know what you wanted. All you knew to say was 'Avie', and that was all you did, cry and scream for 'Avie'. Only when you saw Avery did you stop. All he said was 'She missed me,'. That was a no brainer." My mother smiled weakly. "Because your birthdays were so close together, we would pick a day in between the two and celebrate them both. It was on you guys' sixth/tenth birthday party at the beach that it... happened."

"When Avery...?" I asked, and my parents both nodded. There was silence for a moment, then I looked at my dad, willing him to meet my eyes. 'Look at me,' I thought, but not directly to him, 'Look at me and tell me what happened.' My father nodded his head to the ground, then looked up at me, and then he nodded again.

"Yes. Everyone was there with us that day. We'd set up an umbrella. Both sets of grandparents, Uncle Leonard, and at the time, Uncle Mark, all set up the party while you, Avery, your mom and I all played in the water. We all had the cake and ice cream, you two opened up presents, and then you and Avery went back into the water while Grandpa Andrews watched over you. I'm not exactly sure what got Avery out so far. I think one of your toys had floated away, and he'd gone after it. I heard my father shouting for Avery to get back in, but he was struggling to swim. I ran into the water, but in my fear, my powers caused the water to ripple and make waves, which only made it harder for him to swim back. I used my powers to move the water around him, to lower it enough for him to swim better or even walk along the bottom, and for a few seconds, it worked." My father stopped talking, and the guilt and grief was there. I could feel it strongly then. He looked at his hands and played with his wedding ring. Quietly he said, "Something happened. I lost my concentration. The water crashed down on him and he... he-" His shoulders shook, and I knew what had happened.

"I tried to get to him, even when Jason had moved the water, but I couldn't get to him in time. It was too late," my uncle said, then he looked me in the eyes. "Unfortunately, there is more, but if you want, we can stop now and tell you more in the morning." I shook my head.

"If you can tell me now..." I said, getting uncomfortable at the sight of my father's tears. "I've waited for a couple of months now for the truth, and..." I looked away from my uncle. "And I think you've been waiting a while to tell me the truth."

"True," Uncle Leonard said. These seemed to be the magic words, and my mother caught my eye.

"Nothing stayed the same after that. For days we all cried for our loss, but you... It broke my heart to see you acting the way you did. You didn't ever want to sleep, and when you did, you had nightmares. You never let go of this green toy boat, which was the toy Avery had gone out to get for you. It had washed up by itself later when the ambulance had come, the irony. You were so afraid of water that you refused to go near the bathtub. We had a half bath with a sink and toilet, but the only way you would get clean is if I had a small bowl of warm soapy water and a wash cloth. You wouldn't let your father near you, and it hurt him so bad." I looked at my father, and felt horrible. Though I didn't remember that, thinking of how I would feel in his shoes made me feel hurt, too. Feeling this, I knew that the memories were hurting him. He tried to save Avery, and that guilt of failing him must have tore him up then, but me being afraid of him must not have made the guilt go away at all.

"It was real bad," Uncle Leonard said, and nodded to emphasize his words. "Your parents tried everything, but nothing helped. Then one night when I was living with you to help out around the house, you woke up screaming, and I mean, it was loud. The Boogey Man, Bloody Mary, Freddy Kruger, Jason and the Easter Bunny were all after you. You wouldn't speak, not for a long time, but when you did, you kept saying, 'I killed Avie,' " I saw that my father had gone completely still, and I stared at him. He was tense again, and I knew he didn't like this part, but I sensed something else from him, the sense that he wasn't saying something. "Your powers started to show then, and the fact that you could see everyone else's memory of that day was making it worse. So all of us adults got together. You were asleep on the floor, the first time you slept more than a couple of hours since before Avery drowned. We told everyone not to think about it in your presence, so you didn't have any nightmares. It appeared that when we thought about it when you were asleep, you woke up with the nightmares. If we thought of something else, your sleep was almost peaceful. Together we came up with the idea of possibly repressing the memory of what happened through hypnotherapy. Well, Grandma and Grandpa Cook didn't like that. They didn't think it would work, but we convinced them that it would if we got rid of anything that would remind you of Avery. So we set a plan in motion. The week after that was spent slowly remodeling your grandparents' houses, rearranging furniture, taking down pictures of Avery, getting rid of toys you used to have over there... You stayed with each of your grandparents for a few days at a time while we did the same to the condo and got rid of anything with significant memories attached to them. Well, they're in storage now, right?" My parents murmured their agreement.

"When all that was done, it seemed to help calm you down. We took a few days to train ourselves not to think of Avery or anything like that. It was rough, but we wanted you to be happy again. We went to a friend of Mark's, who had turned his power of hypnosis into his career, and he could repress anything for a long time. He did this for free as a favor to Mark. You went home that afternoon happier than we'd seen you in almost three months. You still had your powers, and you were good controlling what you could or couldn't hear, something I think you taught yourself, but we still kept songs in our heads, even the really annoying ones we knew would be stuck there for days, just to keep you from reading something that you weren't supposed to. Your grandparents, the Cooks, moved away not long after that, and Mark got a transfer from the San Diego branch of the Institute, to a new branch in a small city I'd never heard of before then called Bludhaven, and I went with him. I don't know much else except for the fact that the repressed memories lasted about three years, when it was supposed to be longer than that."

"Three and a half, and Dr. Sage had said that his hypnosis would last longer than that, even." Dad said, lifting his head. My mother slowly stroked his arm, and he seemed to draw strength and courage from the touch. It made me wish Dinah was there so I could be protected by her arms as I listened to this, knowing that the story was about to get worse. "You yourself had just turned ten, and in the first month of the fourth grade, your class went on a field trip to the San Diego Zoo. I was a chaperone, and together we'd gone to all of the exhibits. We were at the polar bear exhibit, and they were playing pretty rough. They got rowdy, and were splashing. About a cup or two of water got you, and- I don't know, your face went from happy to terrified. Again, the only thing you would say was 'I killed Avie.' You went right back to the way you were right after Avery died. For some reason though, you weren't too afraid of the water to take baths, as long as your mother was there. Mark's friend, Dr. Sage, had followed your uncles to Bludhaven, but had suggested we go to Dr. Alder at the San Diego branch. He had the ability to take memories from someone and restore it whenever they wanted it back. So we had gone to him in the Institute, and he had taken away the memories of Avery. He had a regular hypnotherapist hypnotize you so that you wouldn't ask any questions about your lack of a memory-"

"When did this happen?" My uncle was staring at my father in disbelief. Apparently, he didn't know about that. If that was the case why would my father keep that from him? Was he against it?

"That same day." My father didn't look at Uncle Leonard or me. No one said a word for the next minute or two. "Well," my father said slowly, "you went back to being happy, but the thing was, you lost your powers. You forgot completely that you even had powers. I stayed in the Institute for a while after that. I wanted to learn to control my powers, but I had no clue how to go about doing that, so I learned with a few of the children who were also trying to learn. I wanted to, in turn, teach you how to control your powers a little better than the way you had. So, while Dr. Alder stifled through your memories to get the one memory of your power back, I was in a different room trying to get better with my own powers. It was the strangest thing... It was as if he found that memory-or one close to it, but it was blocked off to him. I don't know why, but he had the memory inside his own head, he had taken it, but he couldn't access it once he had it. He could only hold on to it..." I frowned in confusion.

"We had planned to give you your memories when you turned eighteen, and I wasn't prepared to give this talk with you for another two years... but well... You never got your powers back because Dr. Alder wasn't sure if the memory hiding your powers was one of the memories that would trigger thoughts of Avery. So we left it. But Dr. Alder was fascinated by you. He couldn't figure out why he couldn't get to this memory. Why he couldn't see it as more than a blank piece of paper resting within his mind, which is how he described the memories. He was convinced that you still had your powers within you, and that what he had was merely a memory of having and using the powers, not the powers by itself, so he started up a series of tests with our permission to see if there was another way you bring your powers out. I was fine with it. We planned to go to these tests, erase the memory of the tests so the thoughts of the Institute won't scare you. All he seemed to do was give you small blood tests, 'do you see what I think you're seeing', sort of tests, but when I was gone... Gabby I'm, so sorry. When I left you in Dr. Alder's care, I didn't know what he was doing to you. The tests were... horrible, and he would simply erase the memory of that day.

"The main thing they were trying to do was to scare the powers out of you, or make some emotion strong enough that your powers would surface. That was the common way people started to notice that their powers were real." I saw both of my parents get a look of almost murderous proportions while Uncle Leonard's eyes got dark. It was silent, and I felt uneasy. What could have happened to make them this angry?

"Then he... He got the idea that you should relive the day Avery died. At least, I think that was what he was going for, because I was in my training when I felt this... fear. I felt I had to go to you. When I did, you were unconscious next to a large tank of water in a room they never had you tested in before. Your Uncle Mark was there, shouting at Dr. Alder and a few staff. I don't know, I lost it. I got so angry that they would use your fear of water against you without my permission or even supervision for protection if things went wrong, which, from the looks of it, they had. Anyway... The water in the tank sloshed about, and I made it leave the tank. I made it destroy a few things, computers mostly. I think a man or two were knocked around pretty good. I got out of there. I took you and got out of there. Not long after that, they closed it down. I am not sure why they didn't just keep it running after that, and I am sure they damage could have been fixed up, but they closed it down and destroyed the building. They must have rebuilt it or found a new location in San Diego, because a month ago, a doctor that I didn't recognize, a younger doctor from the Institute called about records they still had on you."

"What about Dr. Alder? Do you know if he lived?"

"I don't see why he didn't. I doubt anyone drowned that day." I looked at them all one by one before asking the one question that had been burning within me ever since my theory of having my thoughts taken, not repressed became a reality.

"Do you know what you would have said or done if this doctor had died before I turned eighteen, when you had planned for me to get my memories back from him?"


	25. Chapter 24: Snowflakes

**Chapter Twenty Four**

**Snowflakes**

"It was one of the many things we had worried about when we'd decided to do this. More than anything we were worried that something would trigger your memories and you'd start asking questions, but you were fine, and when you got in a fight with a girl at school because you had kissed her, it was the perfect excuse to get out of San Diego and as far from there as possible. We told you that it would be better for you to be near someone who would understand your feelings for girls, but we really just wanted the memory of the Institute as far from us as possible. If Dr. Alder had died, we would have told you everything," my mother said. "I know it wouldn't have been anything like getting them back. I guess it would have been... exactly like this." I nodded. I could see it being that way as well. What other way could there have been? I looked down at my hands in thought, wondering what 'Avie' looked like and I tried so desperately to conjure up an image of him. I was about to ask for one from the adults in front of me. I swallowed as a tear fell. I knew that this had to have been the one I had cried for on Thanksgiving day.

"Gabby..." My mother was crouched in front of me and was brushing hair away from my face with her fingers. then she wiped away the stray tear.

"Where is he, Mom?" I asked.

"What do you mean?" She was confused, but determined to answer my questions.

"Where's Avery? He's not buried near Grandma Cook. I kind of remember once going to her gravesite, but never did I see a headstone for an Avery Andrews."

"You wouldn't, sweetie. Not by Grandma Cook. We had him placed on the other side of the cemetery for that reason."

"What about U- um, Mark?" I wondered, looking at Uncle Leonard. He shrugged, but answered my question as if it meant nothing to him. It was a lie though, and I felt it sting.

"I found out he was a part of some of the tests you were given when your father was there. We fought about it, and I refused to be with him while he worked in the Institute. He didn't want to leave his job there despite what had happened to you because he believed that the Institute did more good than harm to metahuman children. I didn't believe him, so we got a divorce, or shall I say the equivalence of. I turned the empty spaces of the Dark Horse Bar into two apartments, and the rest, as they say, is history."

I looked around at them. My mother, who was still crouched in front of me, got to her feet with a groan and a mutter about getting old with bad knees. Then she sat back down next to my father. I linked my hands together in my lap and looked down again. My mind, not for the first nor last time, went crazy with thoughts. I could almost see these bits of my past being fitted together like a crazy game of Tetris, but still there were small gaps in my memory. The mystery was solved, but still gaps remained. The three adults in front of me waited for me to speak. I had a feeling, as I opened my mouth many times with nothing coming out, that they'd be waiting for a while. I felt that it got a little harder to swallow because my mouth was dry, and I busied my hands with filling my glass with water and drinking it. Then I slowly stood up as they all watched me, wondering loudly what I was doing.

Finally, I said, "I think... I think I'll go for a walk. I need to- to think..." I refused to look anyone in the eye. I didn't wait for a reply, but I heard a couple of 'okay's from my parents as I retreated to my room to get warmer clothes. As I put on my boots, I felt a presence in the doorway and looked up to see my mother. She was wondering if I hated them now, and the truthful answer was that I had no clue. About anything.

"I understand that you've got a lot to think about, but it is cold out there tonight. Don't be out too long, and take your cell phone with you. Keep it on so you can hear it if we call." Numbly, I nodded, just so she knew that I heard her. My mother didn't seem to know what else to say, so she left, and after I got my scarf and hat on, I followed her movements out to the living room, grabbing my cell phone off of the charger on my way out.

"I'll be back in an hour or so," I said to them.

"Okay, be careful," my dad said, and my uncle nodded and put his hand up in the air in a half wave. I turned and opened the door. The air wasn't as cold as I thought it would have been, but I was glad I bundled up. The sky dropped large, but delicate snowflakes, and the wind picked up just enough to force them against my cheeks and nose. I walked the three blocks to the high school, curious about its progress. The bottom windows we replaced, but the windows on the top floor weren't yet. I went up to the new windows and looked inside. The floor looked cleaned up, but the spray-paint was still everywhere. Who knew what 'Soscudadika' meant. Maybe the person who left the odd message had, but if they'd looked upon that word the morning after they wrote it, would they have known its meaning?

I took a right after that at the main sidewalk, and walked almost a mile towards the southeast entrance of New Gorham Park. the whole time I walked, I felt strange, watched almost. From what I know about Helena, I would have heard her thoughts before I even felt her presence, but I didn't know who was following me then. The wind picked up, but it wasn't blowing in my face once I had changed directions in my walking. I followed the small trail and got to the playground. Slowly, I brushed snow from the first swing in front of me and sat down. It was cold on my rear, but I let it warm up. It was on the swing that I thought about what I was told. Was that everything? What more could there possibly be? My life went from being average and almost boring to that of a TV show heroine in the course of days. People I barely or didn't know existed played a major role in my past, present and future. I had a brother- a brother I apparently loved more than anything, yet I had no memory of him. I didn't even know what he looked like. Did we look a like? Did he, too, take on my father's features, or did he look more like my mother? I slowly used my knees to rock myself back and forth on the swing as I thought. I could hear the tiny creeking sound the swing made with my movements, and the wind whispered past me in various directions. I didn't know how long I was there, really. I know I promised to be back in an hour, but I didn't even know what time I left the house. I still felt watched, but whoever it was wasn't out to hurt me, as I had been a sitting duck (literally) for quite a while, and they could have easily hurt me. It was still slightly creepy, in the moments I tuned into my surroundings before going back into heavy thought, to know someone was just there, watching me with me not knowing why. I just knew it wasn't the Huntress, nor Dinah, and that may have been the thing that creeped me out the most.

There was the sound of footsteps, and to me, they sounded deliberate. I looked up to see Dinah there, the darkest figure in all the white. I stood up as she approached me. She had on a long trench coat, jeans, boots, a black cap, and what looked like ski gloves, but they were mostly buried in her pockets. "Helena and I are on sweeps. In this weather, anyone walking around alone seemed suspicious, so Helena followed you. She's convinced someone else is here with you, and she went looking for them, but I came here. Are you okay? You look dazed. What happened?" I didn't know how to answer that, really. I know I should have been a little worse off than I was, but to be honest, to me it sounded like a bedtime story. _'Once upon a time, there was a princess named Gabby who had a brother, but the brother died, and Gabby was so distressed, that she cried and cried. One day the king and queen said, 'I can't stand her crying so, we must do something'. So they took her to a great wizard who magically took her brother's memory away, and she was happy again...'_ I felt bad for the characters, but there was no real attachment. I knew I should have felt worse. A lot worse. I mean, my brother is dead. The thing was, though I had guessed already about Avery's existence, it was still hard to think that I even had a brother, since I went ten years thinking I was an only child. I looked away from Dinah, then slowly sat back on the swing.

"My parents got back tonight," I told her, leaning to my left where the other swing that wasn't for babies was. I busied myself with the task of brushing the snow away from that swing, then gestured for Dinah to sit down, which she did.

"So they're okay?" she asked, not exactly sure where I was going with the conversation.

"Yeah, they're fine." I turned my head to look at her. She was watching me closely, and I closed my eyes to focus on my door. I opened it a little. _'-she doesn't get sick out here.' _"They told me everything."

"They did?" I nodded. "Wow, so what did you learn?"

"I did have a brother. His name was Avery Jason Andrews."

Dinah stayed silent while I retold her the story. It felt good to talk to Dinah about this. She was a good listener. In her mind, I knew she connected the dots in all of the places I had, but never showed much on her face, which made telling her a lot easier. Only when I told her about having to leave the house to think it all over did she speak.

"Wow," she said, "and I thought mine and Helena's pasts were interesting." She placed her left hand over my right, which was rested on my knee, and I flipped my hand over long enough to intertwine our fingers. "So," she started to say, sounding a little flustered, "what are you going to do now? Go to this Institute?"

"I'd like to " I replied slowly, "but my father had destroyed one of the lab rooms in San Diego. Surely that would have pissed them off a little."

"I don't know. Why would they have called him specifically for a check up for you if they just wanted to get back at him?"

"Good point," I said, but thought about it a little bit. "If I were an organization such as the Institute, and I had invested so much time into it- even as an," I put my fingers up in quotation mark gesture, " 'employee'... and some angry guy comes along and destroys part of it, I highly doubt I would be inviting him over for a cup of coffee five years later." I lowered my voice to sound like an overly jolly guy, " 'Yeah, we almost killed his daughter and he destroyed my life's work, so I guess we're even now. HA HA HA!' "

Dinah shook her head with a smile that clearly said she thought I was nuts. I frowned in thought. I looked over at my friend after a while, then to our linked hands, wondering if I should still consider her a friend. I felt better with her there. I stared at the side of Dinah's face before she looked at me, and our eyes met. There was ice in her eyes, which had melted as soon as she saw that I was watching her. She was thinking about the possibility of the phone call being some sort of trap for both me and my father, but I had a feeling that they weren't even concerned with him. Just me.

"Come on," she said. "It's getting colder now. I'll walk you home." Our hands still linked, she stood up, pulling me with her.

"But I live almost a mile away." Dinah gave me an almost blank look that said, 'So?'. "You might get stuck in this." I tried again. Her look didn't falter. I sighed, which made her smile. I decided then that I wasn't getting anywhere with this, so I started walking in the direction of the entrance/exit of the park. We were silent as we walked along the sidewalk towards my house. After that first block, I felt contentment from Dinah, as if her life finally felt at peace. Walking hand in hand with Dinah down the quiet sidewalk, I felt at peace as well.

As we walked up the steps to my house, Dinah slipped her fingers away from mine, and I reluctantly let go. "Would you like to come in for something to warm you up before you go home?" I asked her, feeling somewhat shy now. Dinah smiled, but shook her head slowly.

"It's late. You should rest on things, and I should go before the weather gets any worse." I nodded and pulled her into a hug.

"Thank you for being here tonight."

"Anytime," she replied softly. I released her, but only long enough to put my hand on the back of her neck and bring her head towards mine in a kiss. This kiss held no passion- okay, that was a lie, but there were no promises in my kiss. It said little more than 'thank you' and 'goodnight'. I felt her longing and pulled away before I could respond to that longing by deepening the kiss and making things worse. We stared into each other's eyes, and I felt the static of her abilities, which told me that her emotions were high. I didn't mean to do that to her. "Uh- Godnight, Gabby," she said, and her voice was low, almost a grumble from the far depths of her throat. It was hot.

"Goodnight, Dinah. Be safe," I said. I watched her walk down the street a little ways, and a figure emerged from almost out of nowhere. They walked together a few steps, and I heard that words were exchanged between them before the figure bumped into Dinah purposely. Dinah playfully hit the figure on the arm. I smiled at Helena and Dinah's snowball fight before I heard the door open behind me.

"I thought I saw Kyle down the street," Uncle Leonard said. I nodded. He wanted to ask me if I was okay, but as I watched the 'sisters', I had to laugh. Helena had kicked a tree with her mighty leg, and snow tumbled down on both of them. I could hear their giggling almost a block and a half away. "Come inside," my uncle said, and I took one long look at the two fading figures laughing and throwing snow at each other, before I did as I was told. Seeing them together, it seemed as if they'd been in each other's lives for years, not a couple of months. For one such as Helena who was used to growing up an only child, she seemed to have taken to the 'older sister' role well. I couldn't tell that they still had a hard time adjusting to each other sometimes, especially after the attack on their home. At the same time, I knew that Helena's used the cover of 'adopted sister' enough that it had started to grow on her. I knew Dinah's grown on her.

I felt the warmth of the house immediately. Without a word, Uncle Leonard went to the cabinets above the refrigerator and got out two packets of ramen noodles, and a pot of water. About ten minutes later, my coat, hat, scarf, boots, and gloves were off and bundled almost neatly in a chair next to me. Both of us had a bowl of instant noodles in front of us. My mother said once that she hated the smell of them, but I could live off of them if nutrition wasn't an issue. I smiled. 'When in doubt, make soup' must have been my uncle's motto. Between us, we passed back and forth a bag of Goldfish crackers, which Uncle Leonard dumped into his broth one at a time, the fished (ha-ha) them out with his spoon. I watched him closely, not only because it was sort of odd to see a grown man doing this, but also because it seemed familiar to me. As if to sense my confusion, he said, "Avery never was interested in eating the soup. He would rather eat the crackers, and play with everything else, while you devoured your Top Ramen. I see that hasn't changed." I smiled.

"Some things never should," I added in agreement. We were companionable as we finished off both the Top Ramen and later the Goldfish crackers during our third round of Uno. I think the more Uncle Leonard had stayed with me, the more comfortable I had become, and it felt to me that he had known this all along. He never tried to get me to talk, but a few times, he'd put in comments like, "Avery once beat 'Mario 3' in about six hours without skipping any of the levels, even the hidden ones," or "I think Avery was a little bit in love with Janet Jackson," and then, "Once Avery had to read The Phantom Tollbooth for school, but you wouldn't leave him alone long enough to let him read it, so he started to read it out loud to you. I don't know how he had done it, but you two were sitting on the couch all afternoon, and you were quiet the whole time except for when there was this part- something about moving grains of sand with a pair of tweezers..." I looked up at this part. I remembered reading the Phantom Tollbooth for school as well, and I remembered being amazed by that part then, too, for some reason.

"I remember that part of the book," I said.

"Yeah." Not long after our fifth round of Uno, which was the tie breaker between us (he won, although I just know he cheated), I excused myself, gave my uncle a hug and a kiss on the cheek, then went to my room and got ready for bed.

_I look at my new husband, then back at the two children who walk in front of us in the toy store in the mall. Avery has a hold of Gabby's hand and they are both drooling over a toy boat. Gabby tries to get her hand from Avery's but he wouldn't let go. "Avie, lemme go."_

_"I'm holding your hand until we get back to the car so you don't get lost like you did last time. You scared me."_

_"I won't wander off this time. Promise, Avie, promise." Gabby says, but the little boy only shakes his head and his sister frowns. "Promise!"_

_"I can't let you go wandering off, Gab-thing. I'll have to keep holding your hand. Tell me what you want to look at and we'll look at it together, okay?" Gabby's frown doesn't go away, but Avery pretends not to notice. "Look Gabby, this boat has a motor on it, and can be controlled like my remote control truck." Avery says._

_"Avie?"_

_"Hmm?"_

_"I don't need you to hold my hand all the time. I am a big girl." Gabby says, and I could tell that this hurt Avery's feelings._

_"I know. I just want to protect you-"_

_"I don't need to be protected." Gabby tries again to get her hand back from Avery, but his grasp is still firm._

_"That isn't the point. Dad said you must always protect the ones you love no matter what, so because I love you, I will always be there to protect you until the day I die- no, even after I die."_

_Gabby stays silent as we walk down to the next group of Tonka toys. She doesn't try to be independent from Avery again._

_"Avie?"_

_"Yeah?" Avery asks looking down at her. They are silent for a second, and Avery's head turns to the side as he watches her, almost as if she were whispering in his ear._

_"Do you really love me?"_

_"Yes, I really really love you."_

_"Better than cheese crackers?"_

_"Yes, I love you better than cheese crackers."_

_"Better than army man toys?"_

_"Even better than that."_

_"Better than birthday cake and ice cream?"_

_"Better than a thousand birthday cakes and a million billion ba-jillion scoops of ice cream," Avery says, and Gabby's eyes widen of thoughts of all that ice cream._

_"Wow," she says after a while._

_"Yeah," Avery agrees. As they look at the Ken dolls, it is quiet between them._

_"Avie," Gabby says in a whisper, looking around. Avery leans in to hear her better._

_"What Gabby?"_

_She plant a kiss on the cheek and says, "I love you better than all those things too." I look at Leonard and see him give me a smile and a wink that clearly said 'ditto'-_

_This is her now? Has to be. Looks practically the same._

_Happier though. Have they told her? Has she gotten her powers back? Will she ever? If she has, she'll know I'm here. She'll have some sort of memory, if the power is the same as it used to be. Hopefully she's gotten a good memory from me-_


	26. Chapter 25: Pancakes

**Chapter Twenty Five**

**Pancakes**

I woke up at around nine-thirty the next morning. There was a familiar smell of pancakes and honey, and though I had goldfish crackers mere seven hours prior, my stomach growled. I got up, took a shower, and changed into a sweat suit and slippers. Then I went into the kitchen, where my mother was cooking the pancakes while my father and uncle watched the news in the living room. There wasn't as much tension between them after the truth came out and I knew everything. I debated on telling them about my dream the night before, and had decided that I would. No more secrets now, right? It had to have been Mark's memory I dreamed about. _'Uncle Leonard wouldn't be anyone else's new husband,'_ I thought. I got the feeling that he was the one who watched me the night before on my way to New Gorham Park. I had guessed at first that it was the Huntress, but I knew otherwise, as Helena tended to think heavily, and I would have easily picked up on it. The only thoughts I heard last night were my own and Dinah's. Uncle Leonard and the rest of my family had learned to shield their thoughts from me, and at the time, Mark WAS family so...

"Someone looks ready to hibernate this winter," my mother said, giving me a small smile to test the waters.

"If school never opens up, I just might," I joked back, but even if I could physically do that, I don't think I would want to. Who knew how many memories I would pick up in that time.

"How did you sleep?" my mother asked as she poured more batter onto the skillet.

"I had a dream of someone's memory. It was about Avery," I said the last sentence in a whisper.

My father, who had been listening from the kitchen since I entered, asked, "Was it a good memory?" I nodded, not sure if my father could see it.

"Do you want to tell us about it?" My mother ventured.

"Sounds like group therapy," I commented absently, "but yeah."

"Lenny, Jason, breakfast is almost ready," my mother called, and like a whip being cracked, both my father and uncle got up, my uncle turning off the TV and my father getting juice and glasses from the cupboard. He poured apple juice into my cup and his own, then filled two mugs of coffee for my mother and uncle. I noticed, as I watched this, that my father and I are so alike, and it lead to thoughts of _'If I were in his shoes, would I, too, have taken my daughter to the Institute or would I have found another way? Would I have tried to hypnotize her again?' _I looked down at the table then up again to see eyes on me.

"This feels stupid, me telling you about my dream like this. It's something that under different circumstances I'd talk to Kelly, Gina or Dinah about," I said.

"Who's Gina?" my father asked, and I had forgotten that I never mentioned Gina before, since we weren't really friends before New Gorham got attacked.

"A new friend at school," I told him. "She's funny. I think she is more obsessed with Charmed than I ever will be with Xena." I paused and smiled, thinking about Gina's wings sprouting from her shoulder blades. I still thought they were very beautiful, and I felt sort of envious that someday Gina could just spread them out and fly away to anywhere she wanted to go to get away from this crazy place.

"Anyway, this memory had Avery in it, and... it was very good. I wish I could have remembered it for myself. Uncle Leonard, you would remember this; you were there at the toy store with us. He was afraid of letting go of my hand because he didn't want me to get lost again. He told me that he was to protect me no matter what because he loved me. I kept comparing his love for me to other things in his life that he loved-"

"Like cheese crackers and army men," Uncle Leonard cut in, and I nodded.

" 'Even better than that,' " I added. I took a bite of the small stack of pancakes that was set in front of me. They were perfect. My parents were out of the loop, and I felt bad, but I didn't know what more to say to get them more involved in this. "Then I told him that I loved him better than those things, too." Both of my parents gave weak smiles, and my mother looked as if she might cry. "The thing is... it wasn't in Uncle Leonard's point of view. It was in Mark's."

"But that's-"

"I've learned lately that nothing is ever as it seems," I said, looking at my uncle, who had spoken. My family all looked hurt, sad, and angry, which was what they felt towards Mark. I didn't know what all he was involved in, so I didn't feel much of anything towards him. I'm sure I was supposed to be angry for authorizing a test that almost killed me, but I wasn't. All I knew was that he truly did love my uncle better than anything else at one point in his life, and for that alone I'd have been willing to hear his side of the story. "When I went walking last night, I felt watched, but I knew they weren't going to hurt me, and they didn't. Whoever it was obviously was blocking their thoughts from me, and apparently you all are the only ones who know to do that around me, so I am assuming it was him. I just didn't hear any footsteps or leaves... and I didn't see any other footsteps other than my own and Dinah's. It was all very weird."

"He had to have been near you though for you to have gotten his memory, so I believe that," My dad said. I heard him think, _'If he comes near her, I'll kill him.'_

"That is what I think too," I said, ignoring my father's thought. I was silent for a moment, and then looked up. "I guess Mark was a big part of my life back then, wasn't he?"

"Yes, he was there for many things."

"Though you always told the story of how you met Mark, it never triggered any memories... I guess that was because when I was eleven you called him Brian." My father looked up and glared at Leonard, and I interpreted his look. _'You weren't supposed to say ANYTHING!'_

"Do you know," my mother cut in after clearing her throat, "what you want to do now that you have all of this information?" I nodded, and we all knew that I wanted to go to the Institute, wherever it may be, and get my memories back, and I didn't even have to voice this.

My father reached over and put a hand on my shoulder. "Maybe now that you know what had happened before hand, it won't be a big shock to you if you were to see it all play out this time around." I nodded, hoping he was right. Maybe this time around the images won't shock me as much. Not like when I was ten. Maybe the shock of what I'd already seen and learned the last few days mostly, may have prepared my mind for the shock of seeing my brother's death. But if I loved Avery like they said, and the emotions of that all came back along with the image of it all, then maybe I wouldn't be able to handle it. Then again... Well, I've already felt the emotional anguish of other people after Harley Quinn turned the city upside down, and Helena, Ms. Gordon, and Dinah's grief from that night was so strong that it already felt like my own. Maybe that was what it would feel like when I remember that Avery died... but then I remember that their pain wasn't my own. What if my own grief is so much worse?


End file.
